Blue Jays ready for long stretch vs. O's: 'It's going to be competitive'

BALTIMORE -- When the Blue Jays embarked on the 2022 season, they probably didn’t predict their road to the postseason would necessarily go through Baltimore. But now, thanks to the idiosyncrasies of this year's schedule, it very well might.

Monday’s 7-4 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards, then, drove home that reality, and it served as a snapshot of the path that lies ahead. The Blue Jays will play 14 more regular-season games against the Orioles, including five in the next nine days.

For both clubs, who are now separated by only three games in the standings, it’s a block of games with the potential to make or break October aspirations.

“[The Orioles] are obviously playing really well, and they've made some pretty big improvements,” interim manager John Schneider said. “They have a couple of young, exciting players. I think gone are the days where you can say the AL East is owned by one [team]. So we’re taking this series just like we’d take on anyone else, and it's going to be competitive.”

The building stakes could very well rekindle the type of rivalry the Jays and O’s had in the mid-2010s, when there was little love lost between the two annual AL East contenders. And about those stakes: Monday’s loss sliced Toronto’s grip on the top Wild Card spot to 1 1/2 games over the idle Rays and two games over the Mariners. Baltimore inched to one game behind Seattle for the final spot.

“We have a lot of games left against them, so each one of those games is going to be very important,” said losing pitcher Yusei Kikuchi. “We’re fighting for a playoff berth. I think every single game against them is going to be important.”

Which is why it didn’t behoove the Blue Jays to find themselves in a hole early Monday, courtesy of Ramón Urías’ first-inning three-run homer off Kikuchi. The left-hander coughed up two more homers en route to allowing five runs in five innings, his ERA ballooning to 5.13. Toronto never led, despite Cavan Biggio and Matt Chapman homering and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. extending his career-high hit streak to 19 games. That’s also the longest streak in the American League this season.

Schneider said after the game there aren’t any plans to change Kikuchi’s role at this time, despite his continued struggles. The Blue Jays don't have a ton of starting depth with Ross Stripling injured, but they also don’t have a lefty in the ‘pen after Tim Mayza’s recent shoulder injury.

“I am looking forward to hopefully facing [Baltimore] again,” Kikuchi said. “I faced them last year when they were really struggling. But I also noticed their lineup was filled with a lot of talented young players. I felt like as they got more experience at the big league level, they’d start to play well, like they are right now.”

Said winning pitcher Jordan Lyles: “We obviously know how good and talented [the Blue Jays] are. … We’ve been playing well. But it’s just another series, another Monday night.”

Toronto also isn’t used to Baltimore putting up so much of a fight. The Blue Jays are undefeated in their past 13 series against the Orioles. They went 33-15 vs. Baltimore from 2019-21, when they were the division’s up-and-coming young team and the O’s were in the depths of a long rebuild.

But the Orioles fit that scrappy upstart description this year, and baseball’s new playoff structure puts added weight on head-to-head matchups. There is no more Game 163 if teams finish the regular season with the same record; head-to-head records are the tiebreaker. So, for example, if the Blue Jays and Orioles -- or Blue Jays and Rays, or O’s and Rays, for that matter -- finished tied for the final Wild Card spot, the winner of their season series would make the playoffs.

The loser would go home. The Jays are now 2-3 against the Orioles this year -- with 14 games still to go.

“You hit August and everything seems to count a little bit more, so this time of year is always fun,” Schneider said. “We’re familiar with them and they’re familiar with us. Execution will be big. The game plan is the game plan, and there will be adjustments here and there, but executing is going to be big. The more you see an opponent, the more familiar and the more competitive it gets.”