‘We’ve done it before’: Montoyo expecting Jays to bounce off crushing loss – TSN

Toronto Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo isn’t panicking after a soul-crushing loss to the New York Yankees to open a crucial three-game series Tuesday night.

“Just forget about tonight and be ready to play tomorrow,” manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters after the game. “We’ve done it before so why not do it again.”

Toronto now sits three games back of the Yankees, who play two more against the Jays at Rogers Centre before finishing the season at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. Their magic number to grab one of the two American League wild card spots now sits at three.

“I know where we are [in the standings] but I also know that we’ve just got to keep the blinders on and [there’s] another important one tomorrow,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone.

Luckily for Toronto, they still sit just one game behind the Boston Red Sox after they dropped their series-opener to the Orioles in Baltimore. But with two left against the Orioles and another three with the 65-93 Washington Nationals, Boston could bounce back quickly, leaving the Blue Jays without much time to make a run.

Complicating things for Toronto are the Seattle Mariners, who won for the ninth time in 10 games Tuesday night, defeating the Oakland Athletics 4-2 to move past the Jays and to within a half game of the BoSox for the second wild card spot. This could mean the Blue Jays don’t only need to run the table the rest of the way, but they might need some help as well. 

It was a tight game into the seventh inning as Jays reliever Trevor Richards faced Giancarlo Stanton with two on and two out. Stanton had been red hot, coming into the series with 10 RBI in the team’s three-game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway over the weekend. After fouling off some tough pitches, Stanton took a Richards changeup down and well off the plate deep and gone to left field, giving New York a 6-2 lead and draining an electric crowd of most of their energy.

Rather than put the blame on Richards, Montoyo credited one of the best home run hitters in the game for doing what he does best. 

“I don’t know how you can hit a ball like that,” said Montoyo. “Richards has been good. You gotta give Stanton credit for that.”

On the mound to start the game for Toronto was Hyun Jin Ryu, who was making his return from the injured list after a bout of neck tightness. 

Ryu had been lit up his previous two starts before the injury and while he fared much better Tuesday night, the Yankees still got to him for three earned runs in 4.1 innings, punctuated by an RBI single on a tough pitch by Anthony Rizzo that knocked him out of the ballgame. 

“It was a very frustrating hit, especially since it led to runs and gave up the lead. I think I can speak for all pitchers when I say that it was a very frustrating hit,” Ryu said through an interpreter of Rizzo’s base knock.

“Today, I came in and I wasn’t really thinking about how many innings I was going to throw or how many pitches I was going to throw. I just wanted to focus hitter by hitter, and that’s what I tried to do today.”

Things don’t get much easier for the Blue Jays Wednesday night as they face 2020 Cy Young winner Gerrit Cole in what’s effectively a must-win scenario. Countering for the Jays is righty Jose Berrios, who has an ERA of 2.70 in 40.0 innings over his last six starts.