Blue Jays miss chance to build momentum with tough loss to Tigers

TORONTO — The last few innings of Monday’s game featured a week’s worth of highs and lows.

A no-hit bid from Jose Soriano. A sudden four-run rally from the Detroit Tigers. A three-run homer from Kazuma Okamoto. And then, in case that wasn’t enough, an uncharacteristically tough outing from Louis Varland, who allowed an RBI single in the eighth before making a crucial error in the ninth.

The result was a 6-5 Tigers win that cost the Toronto Blue Jays a chance to gain a game on the Guardians, who lost 7-3 to the White Sox. Instead, the Blue Jays remain one game behind Cleveland in the American League wild-card race with 11 regular-season games remaining.

Since the White Sox and Guardians are playing in Cleveland this week, the Blue Jays can be sure they’ll gain ground on one of those AL Central teams every time they take care of business at Rogers Centre. But on Monday, they couldn’t make that happen.

For most of the evening, the Blue Jays seemed well-positioned to build on Sunday’s win and establish a little momentum. Soriano was dealing early, taking a perfect game into the sixth and carrying a no-hitter into the seventh.

But after dominating through six, he allowed hits to five of the first six Tigers he faced in the seventh. By the time the inning ended, four runs had scored and Soriano was watching Paul Sewald from the third base dugout.

All told, Soriano pitched 6.1 innings while allowing four earned runs, striking out five and walking one. But on a day Tyler Rogers was down the Blue Jays had to mix and match in the bullpen, turning to Sewald, who did his job well and Mantiply, who allowed hits to two off the three hitters he faced.

Later, Varland couldn’t handle a well-placed feed from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first base and Zach McKinstry scored the winning run as a result.

Thanks to Okamoto, the tenor of the game flipped back almost immediately after the Tigers finally broke through against Soriano. With two on and two out in the bottom of the seventh, the third baseman hit his 33rd home run of the season to give the Blue Jays a 5-4 lead.

Not only did Okamoto’s swing give the Blue Jays the lead, it set a new single-season record for right-handed hitters from Japan, passing Seiya Suzuki. The crowd of 42,867 burst into cheers while George Springer raised his arms in celebration at second base.

Springer reached again to lead off the ninth inning, but this time there were no heroics.

There goes one chance for the Blue Jays to prove they belong in October. Now it’s time to make the most of the 11 games they have remaining or end up on the outside looking in.