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Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider made the baffling decision to pull starting pitcher José Berrios in the fourth inning after tossing just 47 pitches in a 2-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the American League Wild Card Round.
While speaking with reporters after the loss, which resulted in Toronto being eliminated from the postseason, Blue Jays infielder Whit Merrifield said he didn’t agree with Schneider’s decision.
“I hated it, frankly,” Merrifield said. “It’s not what cost us the game, but it’s the kind of baseball decisions that are taking away from managers and baseball, at this stage of the game.”
Star slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also told reporters after the loss that “everybody was surprised” by Schneider’s decision to turn to the bullpen early.
Berrios entered the fourth inning having tossed three scoreless innings while striking out five batters and allowing just three hits. He walked Royce Lewis to open the fourth inning before being pulled in favor of Yusei Kikuchi.
Lewis eventually came around to score and Kikuchi allowed the next three batters to reach base as the Twins scored two runs, which was all they needed to complete the sweep of the Blue Jays.
Schneider discussed his decision to pull Berrios in his postgame press conference, via Sportsnet:
“We had a few different plans in place. José was aware of it. He had electric stuff, tough to take him, and I think with the (way) that they’re constructed, you want to utilize your whole roster and it didn’t work out. You can look at it broadly and say it didn’t work out because they scored two runs when we did make a change, you can also look at the fact that it didn’t work out because we didn’t take advantage of at-bats we had with runners in scoring position.”You can sit here and second guess me, second guess the organization, second guess anybody.”
While the decision to pull Berrios was puzzling, the Toronto offense was abysmal on Wednesday night, managing just nine hits and failing to get any momentum going. Ultimately, the offense shoulders just as much blame for the team’s failure, if not more.
The Blue Jays now enter the offseason with questions about what could have been, in addition to questions about how they can build a true title contender in an increasingly difficult American League.
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