The Canadian Press
BALTIMORE—As the regular season winds to a close, John Gibbons must make choices that no Toronto Blue Jays’ manager has faced over the past two decades.
One day after Toronto won its first AL East title in 22 years, Gibbons opted to rest his starters yesterday in a rain-marred 6-4 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.
Although the Jays still are dueling with Kansas City for the best record in the AL (a distinction that provides home-field advantage through the post-season), Gibbons has to balance that objective with the need to keep his players fresh.
After Toronto clinched the division crown in the opener of a doubleheader Wednesday, Gibbons fielded a starting unit consisting entirely of reserves in the nightcap.
He posted a similar lineup yesterday, in part because the Jays had celebrated their division crown with champagne, beer, and cigars late into the night.
“We want to win home-field,” Gibbons stressed. “[But] we had a doubleheader yesterday [Wednesday] and we’ve been going at it hard all year.
“It made perfect sense not to play [in the] doubleheader after you clinch,” he reasoned.
“Then coming back and playing an early game today would be like no day off at all for them.
“My job is to take care of these guys,” Gibbons added.
“Yes, we’d love to win it but I’ve got to do what’s best for these guys—not what some bozo out there in fantasy land thinks.”
The Jays and Kansas City are tied with 92 wins after the Royals beat Chicago 6-4 last night.
Jays’ ace David Price was scratched from his scheduled start yesterday.
Sluggers Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, and Edwin Encarnacion also sat out.
“These guys . . . play every single day,” Price noted. “When you get to this point in the season . . . if you can give those guys a day off or a couple days off, it goes a long ways.”
Price won’t pitch again until the post-season. He will throw live batting practice while the team finishes its season with three games in Tampa Bay beginning tonight.
“I’m fine with it,” the left-hander said.
“We have a plan, and we know what we’re going to do.”
Manny Machado homered twice for the Orioles, who took a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Drew Hutchison (13-5) before a delay of three hours, 25 minutes.
The game originally was slated to start at 7:05 p.m. but was moved up to 12:05 because of the threat of rain at night.
As it turned out, the rain started early in the day and didn’t let up until around 4 p.m.
Attendance was announced at 18,257 but that was tickets sold.
At the outset, there only was a smattering of fans—mostly because of the dismal weather, the switch of the starting time, and the Orioles’ late-season fade.
After the lengthy delay, only a few hundred remained.
It became apparent early that the Jays were going to experience a figurative hangover from their big day.
Hutchison gave up a one-out single in the first inning and Machado followed with a home run to centre.
Chris Davis and Steve Pearce then sandwiched doubles around a hit batter for a 3-0 lead.
Not long after that, the game was halted. Neither starting pitcher returned.
T.J. McFarland (1-2) took over for Tyler Wright and pitched four innings to earn his first win since July 27, 2014.
Zach Britton worked the ninth for his 35th save.
Ezequiel Carrera drove in two runs while Dalton Pompey had three hits for the Jays, who won the season series 11-8.
Toronto needs to win two of three in Tampa Bay to finish with a winning record on the road.
On the injury front, Jays’ shortstop Troy Tulowitzki could return tonight “or definitely Saturday,” Gibbons said.
