History eludes Berríos, but run of consistency stretches on

ST. PETERSBURG -- José Berríos could have put himself right beside a couple of Blue Jays Cy Young Award winners on Friday night. He did not.

He could have attained 100 career wins in the Majors. He did not.

What he did do, however, is the same thing he’s been doing for the past six weeks: perform like one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Berríos posted his eight consecutive quality start after allowing only one run through six innings at Tropicana Field, but he suffered a tough-luck loss -- his first since Aug. 3 -- in a 1-0 defeat to the Rays.

“Josey has been about as consistent as anyone around the league this year,” manager John Schneider said of his starter. “And today was just another example of it.”

Back on Aug. 3, Berríos surrendered five earned runs over five innings in a loss to the Yankees. He came back six days later to fire seven innings of one-run ball in a win over the A’s, beginning a run that has put him in the neighborhood of some of the franchise’s best pitchers.

Entering Friday, Berríos had won seven consecutive starts. The only hurlers with a longer streak in franchise history? Roger Clemens (eight in 1997) and Roy Halladay (11 in 2003), each of them doing it as part of Cy Young seasons.

Berríos won’t take home such hardware this year, but even with Friday’s loss, the past six weeks have been Cy Young level. His 1.51 ERA and 0.88 WHIP rank inside the top five in the Majors among pitchers with at least 40 innings during that span.

His sinker has often been his best offering -- it was tied for the most valuable pitch in MLB since Aug. 9 entering Friday, sitting next to teammate Bowden Francis’ four-seamer. But that pitch wasn’t his sharpest against Tampa Bay. So Berríos leaned on his slurve. The results were almost flawless.

Berríos racked up nine swings and misses on the slurve, one shy of his season high. He also used it to complete four of his six strikeouts, and the pitch led to only two hits in 11 at-bats.

Yet one of those hits ultimately decided the game. It came in the sixth inning, as Berríos threw a 1-2 slurve to Jonathan Aranda. This one didn’t have the same amount of depth as the majority of the right-hander's diving slurves on the night. Instead, it hung in the zone and Aranda launched it for his fourth homer of the season.

“I think it was a good pitch, but I think he made a better swing,” Berríos said. “... I was throwing a pretty good [slurve] up and down. But that one was more side to side.”

Berríos will head into his final start of the regular season -- likely on Wednesday against the Red Sox at Rogers Centre -- looking to notch his 100th victory in the Majors. It’s something that only 20 active pitchers have achieved, including teammate Kevin Gausman back on Aug. 25. And you better believe that big, round number means something to the 30-year-old Berríos. He had 20 family members from Puerto Rico at Tropicana Field ready to celebrate with him Friday.

Alas, any celebration will have to wait until next week. Those 20 people won’t all make it up to Toronto for the team’s final homestand, but Berríos’ mom will fly back north with her son and be in attendance when he next goes for the milestone.

“Honestly, I thought I was going to make it tonight,” Berríos said. “... I have one more chance this year, so we’ll see if I can make it.”

Toronto was shut out for the ninth time this season after stranding eight runners and going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays’ last threat occurred in the eighth, as Ernie Clement stood on second after drawing a leadoff walk and notching his 12th steal.

With one out, Alejandro Kirk hit a broken-bat roller toward third baseman Junior Caminero. Even though the play was developing in front of him, Clement took off for third. He anticipated that Caminero would run up onto the grass to glove the grounder, giving Clement what he thought would be a clear line to third. However, the Rays rookie stayed on the dirt, scooped up the ball and tagged Clement as he tried to slide under the glove.

Spencer Horwitz struck out to close the inning before the Blue Jays went down in order in the ninth.

“That's a mistake that can't happen, for sure,” Clement said. “... I think I could have waited another second to make my read, but I had already committed and it was the wrong read.”