One pitch sinks an otherwise brilliant Max Scherzer as Blue Jays bats go cold in loss to Tigers

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Even when they lose, the Blue Jays somehow find a way to win.

That was the feeling following Sunday afternoon’s peculiar 10-4 setback to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in the finale of their four-game series.

Despite losing for just the second time in 10 post-break games, the Jays had to come away heartened by starting pitcher Max Scherzer, who went seven innings, allowing only three hits, no walks and striking out a season-high 11.

On his 41st birthday, Scherzer was facing a team he spent five years with — from 2010-14, which included a World Series appearance in 2012.

Since injuring his thumb in his Jays debut in late-March, the future Hall of Famer has been built up gradually since being activated on June 25.

Sunday’s outing was Scherzer’s seventh start of the season, but it was his longest and, arguably, his best.

One pitch out of the 96 he tossed cost him.

After retiring the first six hitters he faced, Scherzer gave up a single and double to begin the third inning. He almost got out of the inning unscathed but Gleyber Torres took him deep for a three-run blast.

It was the eighth long-ball Scherzer has yielded this season and the fifth in his past three starts.

Following the Torres dinger, Scherzer retired the next 13 batters — striking out eight of his final 10 before giving way to the bullpen to start the eighth.

BICHETTE: JEWEL OF JULY

Amid this most improbable of seasons, so little has been discussed/debated/dissected on the future of Bo Bichette, who is poised to cash in big this off-season as a pending free agent.

His defence is getting better, though he did allow a ball to go under his glove in the eighth inning that was ruled a hit when it could have easily been an error.

But at the plate is where he has made such an impact. Even in a losing cause on Sunday, Bichette went 5-for-5 — producing half of the Jays’ hit total for the game. His bases-loaded single to right plated a couple of runs in the ninth inning.

In Saturday’s Jays win, his 13-pitch at-bat against Tarik Skubal was epic and instrumental in getting the Tigers ace out of the game.

It’s been a huge month for the team’s new cleanup hitter, who is 29-for-80 in July — that’s a .363 average — with 16 RBIs. Only once this month has he been held hitless in a game he has started. His July has included seven multi-hit games, including 12 doubles and two homers.

It’s no coincidence that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is heating up with Bichette hitting behind him. And while the Jays have been flourishing getting contributions up and down the batting order, having those two get hot in the final two months will be vital to maintaining their hold on first place in the AL East, which is now down to 5.5 games with the Yankees’ win over visiting Philly on Sunday.

GIFT RUNS

The Blue Jays avoided being shut out for the first time since back on June 8 against the Phillies — scoring four runs in the ninth inning against the Tigers — but it was checkered, to say the least, as the too-little, too-late uprising came off a recently DFA’d pitcher and included a bad call by the home plate ump that led to a walk and some defensive indifference on the part of the home side.

The Jays began their final at-bats trailing 10-0 thanks to a seven-run eighth inning by the Detroiters.

After losing the first three games to the Jays, and being outscored 23-7, one could argue that the AL Central-leading Tigers were long overdue.
They entered the game, losers of six in a row and 12 of their previous 13.

But this time it was the Tigers who put together the big inning in the eighth, a truly ugly frame when the MLB-leading Jays unravelled and, by all rights, should have been held scoreless.

Up next

A Monday date (6:35 p.m. first pitch) in Baltimore awaits the Jays, who will face an O’s team that has symbolically thrown in the towel … Some rare good news for the O’s will see the return of catcher Adley Rutschman, who has been on IL (oblique injury) since the middle of June … The trade of bullpen arm Gregory Soto to the Mets was a clear sign of Baltimore’s intentions as Thursday’s trade deadline nears.