Blue Jays squander stellar start by Rodríguez: 'He was fantastic'

TORONTO -- Woe, Canada.

The Blue Jays let the Astros spoil the party on Monday afternoon, leaving the best performance of Yariel Rodríguez's young MLB career out to dry.

The script was all too familiar in the 3-1 loss on Canada Day, even coming off a recent resurgence for Toronto’s offense. Rodríguez was dominant over his 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball, but the Blue Jays only scraped together four hits of support. That “L” next to Rodríguez’s name just doesn’t belong there.

Rodríguez actually carried a perfect game bid through 4 2/3 innings before Jeremy Peña broke it up with a solo shot to right field. We’ve seen this happen to the Blue Jays’ pitching staff too many times in 2024, where one mistake flips a close game.

“Other than that, he was fantastic,” manager John Schneider said. “He took advantage of how aggressive they are. This was his best outing of the year, really. His slider was good, his heater was good and I don’t think he faced more than four hitters in an inning.

“That was everything we could have asked for out of him today.”

Rodríguez gave us the clearest glimpse yet of what it looks like when his incredible intensity is matched by his control. The Cuban right-hander was efficient, too, burning through the Astros’ lineup on his own terms with excellent fastball locations and an excellent breaking ball. He looked like a pitcher who can do more than just start games in the big leagues; he has the talent to take them over.

“I just went out there with no pressure and understood that it’s a huge day for the fans, of course, on Canada Day,” Rodríguez said through a club interpreter. “I just wanted to go out there and do the best I could.”

It almost feels like Rodríguez’s cruel, official welcome to a permanent spot in this rotation, a group that’s pitched so well this season, but has been asked to drag the weight of a bottom-five offense behind it.

Consider Chris Bassitt in the same light. He’s building a fantastic season with a 3.24 ERA, but the Blue Jays are 7-11 in his starts. Over his past five outings, where Bassitt owns a dominant 1.41 ERA, they’re just 1-4.

This lineup deserves some credit for scoring 39 runs over its last six games -- 6.5 runs per game is a beautiful thing -- but it came up short in a pair of painful spots on Monday. In a vacuum, you can say “that’s baseball,” but Blue Jays fans have seen this too often in 2024.

“We loaded the bases twice with one out,” Schneider said, simplifying the matter. “It’s been good the last two weeks, but the last two games are a bit of a lull, obviously. That’s a good pitcher in [Astros starter Hunter Brown] on a good roll in his last seven or eight. We had to take advantage of the spots that we had.”

Toronto had an opening in the second with two runners on and eventually loaded the bases with one out, but the three at-bats of consequence landed on the struggling Alejandro Kirk, the struggling Kevin Kiermaier and Ernie Clement, the man who finally broke up the shutout with a solo shot in the ninth.

After reigning AL Player of the Week Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the rock-solid Isiah Kiner-Falefa were both late scratches, the Blue Jays were left with a thin lineup and little late-game flexibility.

Again, in the eighth, Toronto had a crowd of 39,265 in the palm of its hand, hoping for a maple miracle, but it flopped. This time, George Springer and Daulton Varsho had their shots with the bases loaded -- a better part of the lineup for that to fall on than in the second -- and the Blue Jays still couldn’t get it done.

Now 38-46, the Blue Jays have tumbled to eight games back of the final AL Wild Card spot. The Astros are one of the teams they’re looking up at in the race, but with Monday’s win, Houston is 10-1 in its last 11 games. It’s the type of run the Blue Jays dream of, and frankly, the only thing that can save their season at this point.

Rodríguez’s performance is so encouraging for the future, but it’s difficult to look that far down the road as we enter July and the clock continues to tick -- louder and louder -- on Toronto’s hopes.