Yesavage’s return overshadowed as late loss hurts Blue Jays’ playoff hopes

BALTIMORE – Nearly six weeks removed from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, with only one live batting practice and one rehab start under his belt, Trey Yesavage returned to a big-league mound at a rain-soaked Camden Yards.

The rookie rushed back from the injury, suffered as he warmed for the third inning Aug. 4 at Houston and operated on a week later, with the intent to bolster a beleaguered rotation in the final push for a post-season berth. Instead, his two innings in Monday’s 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles – sealed by Pete Alonso’s second homer of the night, a two-run shot in the eighth off Tyler Rogers – came as the Blue Jays fell 3.5 games back of the idle Chicago White Sox for the AL’s third wild-card and their elimination number was cut to two.

Lacking the runway to build up more fully, Yesavage threw 40 pitches while sitting 93.2 m.p.h. with his fastball, down from his season average of 94.3 m.p.h., and got six misses on 19 swings, three with his splitter and two on his slider. Alonso took him deep in the first for the only Orioles run he allowed while he struck out three.

Even in a short burst, watching him pitch begged the question of how different this final week might look for the Blue Jays had he not tweaked his knee.

That, of course, is one of several ifs the club can ponder while it works through the various harsh realities before it, with Dylan Cease joining the limbo around this week’s pitching plans after an MRI revealed inflammation but not structural damage in his shoulder.

Adding to their uncertainty is that centre-fielder Brett Bateman left the game with what the team said was right hip discomfort after making a sliding catch on a Rece Hinds flare to end the second. X-rays were negative for a fracture, but his status wasn’t immediately known.

Not immediately known is how the Blue Jays will map out their pitching in the coming days, with threatening weather potentially complicating their plans. Max Scherzer is due to start against close friend and former teammate Chris Bassitt on Tuesday when the forecast looks ominous, while they are TBA on Wednesday in Cease’s spot.

If Cease pitches again, it will be this weekend at home, and only if the game means something in the standings, so there will be a whole lot of making stuff up in the coming days.

“You kind of figure it out,” is how Schneider put it. “There are going to be some moving pieces. I don't want to predict any roster moves, but you have that option, as well, and you know you got to let Max go a little bit, let Jose (Soriano) go a bit and try to save some innings out of the ‘pen. But definitely we'll have to piece it together for sure.”

As they did Monday, when Joe Mantiply was designated for assignment and Spencer Arrighetti was optioned to the stay-ready group in Buffalo to clear space for Yesavage and Chad Dallas, who delivered 2.2 innings of one-run bulk work after 1.1 scoreless innings from lefty Brendan Cellucci.