Blue Jays hoping Springer's hot night will inspire others

ST. LOUIS -- On Monday, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo continued to express a firm belief that his team’s offense was right on the edge of breaking through. By his reckoning, being just one player away meant the whole team was ready to turn.

“It’s a matter of one guy getting really hot, and the other ones follow,” Montoyo said in the Toronto dugout before the 7-3 loss. “When nobody’s hot, everybody feels more pressure every at-bat. That’s just how baseball is. Hopefully one guy gets hot, and then it spreads.”

Maybe the man is George Springer.

Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas had a stretch of retiring 13 of 14 going back to the first inning broken by Springer’s leadoff homer in the sixth, which tied the game at one.

His eighth home run of 2022 was the third of his career at Busch Stadium in just his sixth career game there.

“It was great that George did that, but other guys have to do something else,” Montoyo insisted. “We’ve got to keep going. It’s going to turn. I know it’s going to turn.”

One inning later, facing Andre Pallante, Springer drew a bases-loaded walk that gave the Blue Jays the lead.

For a team that hadn’t scored more than three runs in its previous five games, the RBIs provided by Springer and Santiago Espinal to reach that total were enough to provide hope that the inning would never end.

When it did, it didn’t end fast enough.

José Berríos, whose efforts matched Mikolas through six innings, waited through a long top of the seventh on a crisp May night and was greeted by hard contact in his return to the mound. He surrendered three hits, including a home run to Juan Yepez before being relieved by Adam Cimber, who allowed a game-tying single to Harrison Bader and then induced a double play to end the inning.

“He was dealing,” Montoyo said of his decision to return to Berríos in the seventh. “We ended up in a tie game. We had a chance. Just, we didn’t come up with the big hit again.”

Berríos, for his part, insisted that he felt “great” despite the long wait. “They did better than me, and that’s it. They hit me, and that’s part of the game.”

Still, even for Springer, the progress didn’t come without bumps. He struck out twice and hit a harmless popup to short in the ninth inning with the go-ahead run on first. And in the 10th, placed on second as the automatic runner, he was unable to advance even a base.

Espinal flew out to center, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was intentionally walked before Bo Bichette popped out on a nice play by Cardinals right fielder Brendan Donovan and Téoscar Hernández grounded into a fielder’s choice.

“I've been around the game for a long time. I've never seen a bunch of good hitters kind of, like, struggling with men in scoring position,” Montoyo said.

By the end of the night, Toronto’s stretch of consecutive games without scoring more than three runs had reached six.

Montoyo conceded that “of course” his team’s confidence has been somewhat shaken by this barren stretch.

“They’re human beings and they feel it. Every game is close, and they want to give the relievers coming in a breather, and they have to score a lot of runs.”

While the Blue Jays could not get past three, the Cardinals piled up four on one swing in their half of the 10th. After walks to both Tommy Edman and Edmundo Sosa, Paul Goldschmidt lined a walk-off grand slam out to left against Ryan Borucki.

That the game reached that point was in part a result of Toronto’s struggles hitting with men in scoring position. They left two men on base in the first and left the bases loaded in the seventh, finishing the night 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

“They’re too good,” Montoyo said of his hitters. “The pitchers did what they do. They kept us in the game and played good defense, and we were there until the end again.

“They’re a lot better than what they’re doing right now and they will. I believe in that, and it’s coming. I don’t know when it’s coming, but it will come.”