Trey Yesavage’s start was spoiled by two costly defensive moments from left-fielder Yohendrick Piñango as the Toronto Blue Jays fell 8-2 to the Miami Marlins at the Rogers Centre. The Jays also confirmed Dylan Cease will go on the 15-day injured list with a le
TORONTO — About the best thing to happen to the Blue Jays on Monday was that the Rogers Centre roof was open for the first time this season. Nearly everything else was mired in gloom.
In the afternoon, Toronto placed right-hander Dylan Cease on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. The lineup also carried a notable absence: slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr., still sore after being hit on the right elbow a day earlier, was held out of the starting lineup.
Trey Yesavage took the ball against the Miami Marlins on a beautiful evening in Toronto, but his outing turned ugly fast. The left-fielder Yohendrick Piñango’s defensive inning opened the door, and the Blue Jays’ offence couldn’t keep pace as Toronto was handed an 8-2 loss in front of 41,177.
The Marlins struck early. Xavier Edwards opened with a double, moved to third on a groundout from Toronto native Liam Hicks, and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Montreal’s Otto Lopez to put Miami on the board.
Yesavage settled in after that, retiring the next 11 hitters. Consecutive doubles from Javier Sanoja and Owen Caissie—another Canadian—added a run in the fifth inning, extending Miami’s lead.
The game changed in the sixth. Piñango hesitated tracking down a fly ball in shallow left field and let it drop. allowing Hicks to score from first on a play that should have ended the inning at the third out. Instead. the frame was extended. and after Yesavage walked Jakob Marsee. Sanoja ripped a liner over Piñango’s head for a double that plated two more runs and pushed the Marlins ahead 5-1.
The replay made it sting. The ball came off Sanoja’s bat at 96 m.p.h. with a 57-per cent catch probability, yet Piñango misread it—breaking in, then stopping before going back on the ball as it landed on the warning track and bounced off the wall.
Yesavage got out of further trouble by inducing a fly ball to centre to end the frame. He also recorded two more outs in the seventh before being removed from the contest. Over 6.2 innings, he allowed five runs on five hits, walked two, struck out six, and threw a season-high 98 pitches.
What the Blue Jays will take from it is that Yesavage. coming off a dominant performance against the Yankees. was stretched out and able to log innings—a key point with Cease sidelined. An MRI showed the hamstring strain was mild. an encouraging revelation. according to manager John Schneider. though it still likely means Cease misses a few starts.
“He wants to pitch,” Schneider said. “I think he’s being smart about it, too. It’s the risk-reward of losing him for a long time, as opposed to maybe two (starts). That kind of just outweighed it. He was smart about it, but definitely disappointed.”
There was more to endure before the night was over. Nathan Lukes returned from the injured list, and fellow outfielder Davis Schneider was demoted to triple-A. Lukes finished with three hits, but Toronto’s offence couldn’t turn the return into a spark.
The seventh inning brought a scare. Marlins reliever Andrew Nardi hit Lukes in the head with a 94.1-m.p.h. sinker. Lukes fell to the ground as his helmet flung off, but he quickly got up. After a long visit from Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral, he remained in the game.
By the time the innings settled and the final score landed, the roof being open couldn’t cover what came next—Piñango’s defensive misreads, Cease’s hamstring, Guerrero Jr.’s elbow soreness, and a 41,177-strong Rogers Centre that watched the Blue Jays slip away in an 8-2 defeat.
Toronto Blue Jays Miami Marlins Trey Yesavage Yohendrick Piñango Dylan Cease Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Nathan Lukes Andrew Nardi Liam Hicks Otto Lopez Javier Sanoja Owen Caissie 8-2