Early on, they appeared to be on track for just that, with Ross Stripling cruising and RBI singles by Whit Merrifield in the second and Alejandro Kirk in the third, followed by Cavan Biggio’s solo shot in the fourth to open up a lead 3-0, with the promise of more. But, as the 2022 Blue Jays seem to be making everything harder than it needs to be, they once again find themselves advancing to the finals. Their lead didn’t survive the fifth, a pair of rallies undermined by double-play grounders, and David Phelps, Anthony Bass and Jordan Romano, who pitched a big jam, each needed to make sure Teoscar’s RBI single Hernandez in the seventh was the difference in a 4-3 victory. Regardless, a mostly pro-Blue Jays crowd of 14,903 roared when Romano struck out the team with runners on second and third in a high-drama ninth, preventing a game they needed from slipping away. “I don’t want to make them look like that every time, but it’s not a pageant up here,” Romano said. “I just have to get the job done.” Remarkably, he did, keeping impressive composure after Jack Suwinski opened the ninth with a single against the shift before Cal Mitchell’s comebacker on the mound was blocked off him. Pinch runner Greg Allen promptly stole second before Romano rallied to strike out Josh VanMeter, Tucupita Marcano and Kevin Newman for his 30th save. “I’ve got to work on that — I should have just thrown it and thrown it,” Romano joked about Mitchell’s comebacker. “But I knew where we were, first and third and I just had to lock it in and make some pitches. … When you think about the position you’re in — you can win the game, you can lose the game — that’s not right. Being around these spots a lot, my process is to make pitches until you’re done, win or lose.” He won it, and in completing the sweep, the Blue Jays (73-59) moved over .500 by a season-best 14 games and advanced to the series in Baltimore by 2.5 games over the Orioles (71-62), who lost 5- 0 to the Oakland Athletics. However, after using seven relievers in Saturday’s 4-1 win, including Yimi Garcia for 1.2 innings, and with Romano, Bass, Adam Cimber and Tim Mayza each hitting twice in the series, their relievers are being taxed just over optimal for 18 innings Monday. “We wanted to stay away from either Yimi or Jordan today, so we have a lot of guys available (Monday),” interim manager John Schneider said. “We feel really good about it. We also have the 29th player for the double-header, so I think we’re in a good spot.” Julian Merryweather is with the team in the cab squad and is expected to be added as the 29th player for the doubleheader, and the club can also option Casey Lawrence and recall Zach Pop to give the bullpen two additional weapons to work with. Kevin Gausman and Jose Berrios are going to start, and the more they can minimize the load on the relievers, the better. The clash in Baltimore opens a 20-game streak in which they face the Orioles seven times and the Tampa Bay Rays nine times. “You go into (Camden Yards) understanding the situation and thinking, man, if we win three, we’re 4½ behind us. That has to be the motivation,” Stripling said. “Obviously you have to take it one at a time, but go in there feeling good about where we are and understanding that we are the better team and we have to take care of a team that has played well against us and ready to stop it. We know very well how important it is to go out and do it in a big series here.” Stripling did his part on Sunday and could easily have had a bigger lead after his six frames. But he drew a pair of walks in the fourth, including an uncontested five-pitch walk on two-out balls to Mitchell, before a VanMeter shot between Merrifield and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to left center cut the Blue Jays’ lead to 3-2. The next inning, Oneil Cruz’s freak laser to center tied the game and the Blue Jays missed a chance to retake the lead in the sixth when Merrifield hit into a double play with the bases loaded and nearly wasted another in the seventh , when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit another duo. But Hernandez pulled a fly ball up the middle to bring the go-ahead run before Beau Bisset robbed him of a diving Suwinski jumper in left to end the frame. With little margin for error, it’s time after that. “Especially coming off a bullpen game, I definitely wanted to go deep,” Stripling said. “If I’m able to put more zeros in there, let’s call it a three- or four-out game, I’m coming out for the seventh in the low 90s, trying to push (the pitch count) to a hundred, which I haven’t done this year, but we keep talking about it. I felt strong and could have gone for seventh. The game didn’t dictate that. But I was happy I was able to go six and we only had to use three relievers.” Hernandez helped make sure of that with his leadoff hit in the seventh, the latest for a Blue Jays team that has had to look for them of late. Still, they were able to sweep a series despite hitting only two home runs, instead pitching hard with timely hitting. “For us it’s huge because we understand that we don’t have to hit homers to score or win ballgames,” Hernandez said. “That gives us an idea of how good we are.” The best test of that comes in the coming weeks with games against both the team chasing them in the Rays and the team chasing them in the Orioles. Their season clearly hangs in the balance.
