TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays have been waiting a week for someone to take the reins and come through in a big moment.
It finally happened during Wednesday afternoon’s contest, however, not quite like how manager John Schneider envisioned.
Davis Schneider entered the game as a pinch-hitter, walked twice and ended up scoring the game-winning run after some smart baserunning to lift the Blue Jays to a 4-3 comeback win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in front of 37,766 at Rogers Centre.
“The big hit usually leads to a win (but) sometimes it’s scoring on an error leads to a win,” said John Schneider. “You need something to get you in the win column.”
Securing that victory allowed the Blue Jays to snap a six-game losing streak and improve to 5-7 on the season. It also helped the home side salvage something from what was a much-hyped World Series rematch with the Dodgers.
The Blue Jays’ overall play had looked uncharacteristically sloppy over their recent skid and Wednesday represented somewhat of a return to form. Nowhere was that more evident than in Davis Schnieder’s contributions.
He began the game on the bench and during the first six innings, spent time taking swings behind the scenes on the Trajekt machine against simulations of Dodgers relievers. Schnieder knew he’d be inserted into the game at some point and the opportunity arrived in the seventh when he pinch-hit for the left-handed hitting Nathan Lukes.
Schneider drew a leadoff walk from Dodgers lefty Jack Dreyer and came around to score on George Springer’s double off the right-field wall. Daulton Varsho then tied the game with a single to centre, helping the Blue Jays get off the mat in a quick-strike inning that was reminiscent of 2025.
“It felt, I don’t want to say normal, but it felt like kind of what we do well,” said John Schneider. “And the guys feed off of each other when it gets rolling a little bit.”
Davis Schneider was in the thick of it again in the next frame, drawing a five-pitch walk off Ben Casparius and advancing to third base on Andres Gimenez’s single to centre. As Gimenez swiped second, Schneider noticed the ball had come loose on the throw and alertly ran home to score the go-ahead run.
“That’s kind of how we won last year,” said Davis Schneider. “We ran the bases well, went first to third, found ways to score runs besides the home run. And I feel like we did that today.”
“Davis put it all together today in terms of at-bat quality and just being aware of what he’s doing on the bases,” added John Schneider. “All-around good game for him.”
The manager had plenty to be encouraged about as there were key contributions up and down the roster. Dylan Cease held the Dodgers to two runs over five-plus innings and was picked up by reliever Louis Varland, who entered with none out and the bases loaded and allowed just one run to score, off a Teoscar Hernandez sacrifice fly.
“I love Louis Varland,” said John Schneider. “That situation, bases-loaded, nobody out against that team, it’s almost an impossible ask. But man, he is quickly becoming one of my favourite players. Not just pitchers but players, just because of his mentality, the kind of dude he is and what he can do.”
Springer and Varsho’s hits in the seventh-inning rally were also integral, as were the relief work of right-hander Tyler Rogers (1.2 scoreless innings) and Jeff Hoffman (striking out Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman while earning the save).
Cease is admittedly new to the team and wasn’t privy to the identity of last year’s club. Nonetheless, he’s been impressed with how the club’s handled the adversity of an ugly week.
“Definitely a lot of fight in this group,” said Cease. “The biggest thing to me is that nobody’s panicking, which I like to see. It’s very easy when you go through a little slump to panic. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here.”
Wednesday’s win carried a bit of a pop-the-balloon type feel to it. A loss would have brought further frustration and avoiding that will no doubt allow for a better feeling heading into Thursday’s off day.
Next up is a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins beginning Friday and the challenge for the Blue Jays is to build off a strong performance against their World Series foe.
“We’re only (12) games in, so it’s such a long season ahead of us,” said Davis Schneider. “Obviously we’re not starting the way we wanted to start, with all the injuries and the losses, but there’s 150 games left, so there’s still a lot of baseball to be played.
“Hopefully we can use this as kind of like a jumpstart to a win streak here.”
