The Toronto Blue Jays will send out reliable right-hander Jose Berrios on Sunday afternoon as they aim to take their three-game series with the visiting Cleveland Guardians.
The teams have split the first two games of the set. Toronto won 5-0 on Saturday after losing the opener 3-1 on Friday.
Berrios (5-5, 2.93 ERA) is 5-5 with a 4.73 ERA in 17 career starts against Cleveland.
The Guardians are scheduled to start right-hander Ben Lively (6-2, 2.59), who has not faced the Blue Jays. Cleveland is 4-3 on a road trip that will end Sunday.
The Guardians outhit the Blue Jays 8-7 in losing on Saturday but were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in being shut out for the fifth time this season. Toronto was 4-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“You’ve got to credit them — they pitched very, very well today and kept us off balance,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said. “Just couldn’t get anything rolling.”
Toronto succeeded on a bullpen day, as six pitchers saw action. Trevor Richards went the first 2 1/3 innings, with Bowden Francis doing the bulk of the work with four innings, in which he allowed four hits.
Francis extended his runless streak to nine innings. In his 26 career relief appearances, he is 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa had two singles, an RBI and a sacrifice bunt. George Springer, Spencer Horwitz and Addison Barger also had RBI singles.
“Everyone did their part,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “The runs definitely helped.”
It was Barger’s first career RBI in the majors. He was recalled Friday from Triple-A Buffalo and was 1-for-18 in a previous stint this season in Toronto. He also had a walk Saturday in going 1-for-3 and had a throwing error at third base.
“He’s controlling the zone and putting the bat on the ball,” Schneider said.
“I’m a little more comfortable, more calmed down this time,” Barger said. “Last time everything happened really fast.”
Steven Kwan had three singles for the Guardians to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, in which he is batting .500 (19-for-38) with four doubles, one home run and five RBIs. He also increased his on-base streak to 21 games.
Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ended an 0-for-19 drought with an infield single in the fifth inning and was 1-for-4 on the game.
The Guardians played Saturday without third baseman Jose Ramirez, who was placed on the paternity list and also will be out Sunday. Outfielder Johnathan Rodriguez was recalled from Triple-A Columbus.
Ramirez is batting .269 with 18 home runs and 62 RBIs.
“You take him out of our lineup, and everybody moves up one,” Vogt said. “But the beauty is, we’ve used all 13 guys all year, and we’re going to continue to do that, and we’ve got guys that are used to playing and they’re going to step up.
“We can talk about who’s not here, we can focus on that, but let’s focus on who is here. Let’s focus on you guys going out and just being yourself. You don’t have to do more — just go be yourself and we’ll see where it falls.”
Rodriguez was hitting .307 with 12 home runs and 46 RBIs for Columbus.
The Blue Jays played without shortstop Bo Bichette (sore right calf) on Saturday.
–Field Level Media