Blue Jays Drop Winnable Game To Brewers

TORONTO – Like he normally does, Kevin Kiermaier gave the Blue Jays a shred of hope.

In the fifth inning, when Toronto trailed by only one run, the speedy nine-hole hitter socked a shallow fly ball to right field. Brewers outfielder Brian Anderson took a few steps, then a few more before realizing he was going to come up short.

The ball long hopped under his glove toward the track as Kiermaier pumped his legs as quickly as he could. Whit Merrifield scored on the play while the Blue Jays center fielder raced into third with a triple. Progress.

A soldout Rogers Centre crowd hollered after the home club's lone breakthrough to that point. But Kiermaier was eventually left stranded on third base, a theme that popped up multiple times in a dull 4-2 Blue Jays loss on Wednesday.

Toronto went down in order in the sixth, then threatened again in the seventh. Matt Chapman doubled, Merrifield singled, and things were cooking for a Jays squad rallying back from a three-run deficit. Instead, the Blue Jays grounded out three consecutive times, plating a run but wasting a much greater opportunity. 

The Jays batted 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position — that's where the offense fell short. The pitching, however, wasn't spectacular either.

Alek Manoah didn’t necessarily wreck the Blue Jays’ hopes of winning this contest, but he wasn’t a net positive either. The right-hander walked a batter in the first, allowed a two-run homer in the second, and was out of the game after four innings and 89 pitches. All told, Manoah allowed two runs on three hits, but he spun his wheels on the mound again with three walks.

There were sharp moments, like his 1-2-3 third or the biting two-seamer that froze William Contreras to end the fourth, but overall, his outing lacked the spunk Manoah was capable of earlier in his career. On the bright side, there were no stolen bases off the Manoah-Alejandro Kirk battery, which was a big issue last time around in Tampa Bay.

Trevor Richards worked some magic in this contest, too, twirling two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. He’s been on a roll now, having entered Wednesday’s contest on a streak of 4.2 shutout innings.

And so, after two hours and 44 minutes, the Blue Jays dropped a very winnable game against a banged-up Brewers team, knocking them another step back in the rampant race for AL East supremacy.