The Toronto Blue Jays hope to put an all-around shocking day behind them when they get an early wake-up call for an afternoon contest against the host Oakland Athletics on Saturday. The A's won the series opener 2-1 on Friday, taking advantage of a team that not only had flown across the country the night before the game but then came to find out two key players would no longer be around this season. On the same day that the club announced that career-long Blue Jay Cavan Biggio had been designated for assignment, Toronto's players were informed that star pitcher Alek Manoah would have to undergo season-ending elbow surgery.
Toronto then went out and collected just five hits against four Oakland pitchers -- including starter Hogan Harris, who entered the game with a 6.40 career ERA. The contest ended in a crushing fashion for the visitors as Oakland's JJ Bleday hit the first pitch of the ninth inning for a walk-off home run against Chad Green.
"We'll see how we land," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said of the loss of Manoah. "Ideally, you'd like (the rotation) to be pretty steady and kind of keep everybody in working order in the bullpen." In order for that to occur, Schneider added, the club likely would go with a bullpen game the next time Manoah's spot comes up on the rotation.
That would give prospect Yariel Rodriguez, currently pitching for Triple-A Buffalo, a chance to be guided toward that spot the next time around. The move will have no bearing on who gets the Satur.
