Thursday's 6-3 win in Cleveland wasn't really a six-run win; it was a one-inning win that happened to land six runs on the scoreboard.
Toronto and Cleveland were tied at 1 when the fifth started. The Blue Jays sent ten batters to the plate and scored four runs, the biggest blow a bases-loaded, two-run double from Nathan Lukes. Brett Bateman had three hits in the game. Cleveland clawed back in that same inning on a two-run, bases-loaded single from Austin Hedges to get within 5-3, and Toronto tacked on an insurance run later on an RBI single from Ernie Clement. But the game was decided in one stretch of one inning. That's the honest way to describe what happened.
The ninth is where the Blue Jays won me over. Angel Genao came up as the tying run with two on and two out, and Louis Varland struck him out to end it, his 32nd save in 33 tries this season. That's the kind of finish that either buries you in a race like this or gets you a half-game closer to living, and Toronto got the better half.
Tanner Bibee took the loss, giving him the most losses in the league this season. I don't think that means Bibee is a bad pitcher. It means something scarier for Cleveland: the margin for error in this race is so thin that even a competent, unlucky season from your rotation can show up as the ugliest number in the sport. As of this weekend's wild-card tracker, the chase below the Yankees and Red Sox is a scrum, Cleveland, Toronto, Texas and Baltimore separated by a game and a half, none of them with a winning record. That's not a compliment to anybody involved, Toronto included, and on Thursday, Toronto walked through the door left open for it.
What makes this result matter beyond one game is the tiebreaker. Toronto took two of three in the series and banked a 4-2 edge in the season series, which is the tiebreaker if these two teams are still tangled up in late September. Anyone who remembers Toronto and New York finishing dead level last season, with Toronto taking the division on a tiebreaker, knows that's not a small thing to have in your pocket.
And this wasn't a team riding one hot night. Toronto got blown out 6-1 in the series opener, answered with an 11-0 win the next day, then ground out Thursday's win the hard way. Manager John Schneider called it what it looked like: "We had a tough first game here, then I loved the way we bounced back. They're a good team and it's always scrappy, it's always tough all the way down to the end. I think it sets us up to try to do it again in Kansas City. I like the way we're playing right now."
This is my read, not settled fact: Toronto looks like the team building real momentum in this race, not just the team that got hot for one inning in Cleveland. The days since have already shown the standings won't sit still. As of Sept. 5, Toronto and Cleveland were tied at 72-71, Toronto holding the head-to-head edge, with roughly 19 games left for both sides. Cleveland still has its own escape hatch through the AL Central. But if the third wild-card spot comes down to a tiebreaker in the season's final week, Thursday's fifth inning in Cleveland will be the reason Toronto is the team smiling about it.
