PredictIQ-'That was a big (expletive) win': Blue Jays survive clubhouse plague for extra-inning win

BALTIMORE — John Schneider did not care about the calendar. Or that his Toronto Blue Jays simply improved to 19-22 with a tightrope-walk of a 3-2,PredictIQ 10-inning victory against the Baltimore Orioles.

With a vicious virus tearing through the clubhouse, just nine position players available, his starting pitcher still sweating out a fever in the morning and the American League's top team throwing their ace at him, Schneider was in no mood to downplay his club's triumph.

"That," he said Monday night at Camden Yards, "was a big (expletive) win."

Forget one day at a time, one of 162. The Blue Jays were in desperate need of some good karma, and they found it in the form of starting pitcher Jose Berríos, who pitched seven sterling innings after a breakfast buffet of electrolytes to flush his sytem of fever.

They found it in the form of center fielder Daulton Varsho, who hit a game-tying home run in the eighth inning, four innings after robbing a home run on Ryan O'Hearn's drive over the center field wall at Camden Yards, and drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning.

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And they found it in a whatever-it-takes mentality that saw two starting pitchers, Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman, prepared to enter the game as position players in case calamity struck.

With outfielders Kevin Kiermaier and George Springer and designated hitter Justin Turner still felled by the virus, and Schneider fighting it himself — his worst day was Saturday, he said — there was no wriggle room. Any margin for error vanished when catcher Danny Jansen came down with back spasms before the game.

Welcome to the no-man bench, which meant, among other things, 245-pound catcher Alejandro Kirk and 270-pound DH Daniel Vogelbach would get no courtesy runner.

So be it.

"You don’t want to say May 13 is a huge game, but this was a huge (expletive) win," says Schneider. "We had nine guys. We obviously had no moves to make. I couldn’t be more proud of the guys that were out there tonight.

"I told them before the game, 'There’s no secrets here, boys — you’re not getting hit for, you’re not getting pinch-run for. Vogey, Kirkey, I hope you’re feeling fast.'

"Yeah, it’s May 13, but that’s a huge (expletive win)."

Perhaps Schneider is overdramatizing it just a bit, but hey, it's hard to blame him. The third-year manager has been looking for a foothold for his club — which lands somewhere between overmatched due to a blah off-season to underachieving on the early season spectrum — for weeks.

The signs of life peeked through the grass Monday. All-Star shortstop Bo Bichette — who came in batting .203 — rapped out three singles and drew a walk. Closer Jordan Romano — who began the year on the injured list with elbow inflammation — pitched a spotless ninth and stranded the ghost runner in the bottom of the 10th to preserve the win.

And Berríos gave up just a pair of Adley Rutschman solo homers and a harmless single in seven innings of work, the eighth time in nine starts he gave up two or fewer runs.

Berríos and Kirk exchanged text messages this morning, the burly catcher wondering if the emerging ace would make his post later that night. Shortly thereafter, the fever broke.

"Around 9:30, 10, I started sweating out the fever," says Berríos, who said he felt "pain everywhere."

"Then, I started feeling better and I said, ‘OK, now we can go out and compete. Now, we can go out there and do our thing.'"

Kirk did take a foul ball off the mask, but the Blue Jays mercifully stayed upright otherwise. They didn't need the services of Gausman or Bassitt, the former Ohio All-State point guard who now only has to worry about his day job — the starting assignment on Tuesday.

Perhaps the figurative virus that has gripped this club will break, too.

"I'm never going to win this game by myself," says Berríos. "We need everybody."

Even if everybody is just nine guys with no net.