Blue Jays face division-deciding weekend with uncertainty and hope

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There is a laptop plugged in beside a tablet, beside another tablet — and no paper anywhere — on the rather organized desk belonging to John Schneider.

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It gives the false impression that there isn’t panic and disorder almost everywhere with the Blue Jays as Game 161 of the Major League season approaches Saturday afternoon.

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“There’s s— flying everywhere,” the manager admitted of the home office we don’t see, this close to the finish line without knowing where the Blue Jays will finish with two days to go in the season and this is one of those days.

“You know you’re in the post-season,” he said, admitting there are notes everywhere at home, napkins with lineups written on them, different batting orders and pitching rotations and no way of knowing what might be possible or plausible today and tomorrow and beyond these two days.

“We want some clarity,” said Schneider, but nothing is quite so simple or obvious with the dramatic, struggling, and unlikely Blue Jays. Nothing comes easily with so little time left and with the New York Yankees winning rather handily just about every night.

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“We have backup plans and then more back backup plans,” Schneider said. “It’s a lot of uncertainty.” He smiles as he tries to be funny about the near collapse of his team. But really, what he is in all this is unnerved, hoping today will be better than last night, and hoping tomorrow the bats he is so concerned about find a way to start hitting.

“I’m working on the assumption we’re going to win all three games,” Schneider said of this series with the Tampa Bay Rays. It’s not really his assumption at all, because how you can’t assume anything with a team standing on a cliff, unsteady, unsure of which way the wind happens to be blowing.

This is how nervous Toronto, the city, is baseball wise with two games to go, even with a playoff spot already guaranteed reacts. In the ninth inning Friday night, with Jeff Hoffman doing the Jeff Hoffman thing and making everyone’s heart beat dance just a little faster, the crowd of 42,184 was almost silent as Toronto held a two-run lead.

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The crowd was afraid and unnerved and wasn’t sure who and what the Blue Jays were. It wasn’t until there were two runners on base, two outs and the great Yandy Diaz at the plate, Hoffman on the mound with two strikes, that the crowd finally felt enough to try and celebrate the final pitch and urge everyone to move on to Saturday afternoon with the Yankees and Jays tied — and the Jays holding the tie-breaking advantage.

“The goal is to win the division and get into the division series,” said Schneider. “You don’t want to go (to the wild-card round) but you have to be ready just in case.”

Ready with a team that is running out of starting pitchers. Ready with a team that can barely hit in this last stretch of games. Somehow needing to be ready to be more than just alive.

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With Schneider hoping, begging, pleading, prodding, that his offence will do something, anything to score some runs. The Jays can win the AL East with a victory Saturday afternoon and a Yankees loss in a game that begins a few hours earlier at Yankee Stadium.

But this is all you need to know about the come from nowhere Blue Jays season. Their season today comes down to a kid pitcher with all of nine innings of Major League experience.

They got to this place before Max Scherzer stopped getting people out, before Chris Bassitt got injured, before Jose Berrios was moved to the bullpen and then the injured list, before Eric Lauer was foolishly slid out of the starting rotation.

And so it’s up to Trey Yesavage on Saturday afternoon. The wonderkid of two starts who needs to live up to his reputation, pitching in a ballpark this full of people and this full of both angst and excitement.

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Yesavage will need some support from a starting lineup that hasn’t given a whole lot of it lately. Daulton Varsho hit a grand slam Thursday night providing the Jays with a win over Boston. Career minor leaguer Nathan Lukes hit a home run and an RBI single to do most of the damage Friday night against Tampa Bay.

Lukes is almost everything that Yesavage is not in terms of development. This is his 11th professional season, his first full Major League season. He’s 31 years old, he’s bounced around from place to place and the world is finally unfolding in his direction.

His direction, just not in enough of the direction many other Blue Jays now find themselves. Alejandro Kirk, who at one time this season was Toronto’s best contact hitter, hasn’t had a hit in his past 22 at-bats. The already wealthy Vladimir Guerrero Jr. last hit a home run nine Aaron Judge homers ago. Anthony Santander looks like he’s missed most of the season. He has one hit in eight at-bats since coming back from months away. The cleanup hitter who shouldn’t be hitting cleanup — Addison Barger — has one hit in his last 24 at-bats.

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This is a lineup full of 0-fors, with Guerrero Jr., the soon to be $500 million man, looking semi-lost at the plate. Only George Springer, with two hits, a walk and a stolen base Friday night and a home run Thursday night is looking at all comfortable with a bat in his hands.

The veteran Shane Bieber and a bullpen of four relievers of varying histories got the job done Friday night. It’s now Yesavage time.

Imagine that. A kid drafted 15 months ago being asked to possibly win the division for the Jays.

But in this special season of special performances, from Barger and Ernie Clement, from Lukes and Davis Schneider, from Joey Loperfido and Myles Straw and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, there are two days to go, a pennant to win, a desk in John Schneider’s office to make a mess of.

“It’s baseball,” said the manager, “you have to learn to roll with the punches. At this time, you’ve got top be ready for anything.”

ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve

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