Blue Jays swept by Orioles as offensive woes continue in homestand finale

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays’ 10-game homestand started quite heartily. It opened with a three-game sweep against the National League-leading Atlanta Braves during a series that showcased some of the best elements of what the home side can offer. 

But oh, how quickly things can change in baseball. 

The Blue Jays ended their homestand in heart-breaking fashion with an 8-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in 11 innings in front of 41,643 at Rogers Centre on Sunday. The defeat capped a three-game sweep and the Blue Jays’ second-straight extra-innings loss.

And not only is the club reeling, having lost six of its last seven, but the Blue Jays are dealing with an ice-cold offence that’s having trouble with runners in scoring positions.

“We have tons of chances and just not really coming through,” said manager John Schneider. “It's kind of at the point where it’s, ‘Enough's enough.’ You're waiting for it to turn — it will, not I think it will, I know it will — but in order to get there, the guys are just going to have to continue to work their asses off to do it and not just expect that it's going to happen.”

The Blue Jays entered Sunday ranking 24th in baseball with a .237 average with runners in scoring position. Over their past six games — including Sunday’s 3-for-16 showing — the club has just eight hits in 66 at-bats (.121) with runners on second or third base. 

“The work every day is consistent and right now, when it kind of snowballs like this, you want to do a little bit too much,” said Schneider. “You can’t. You got to reel it in. You have to stay with your approach. You have to understand what pitchers are doing.”

Among the prime chances to score on Sunday:

• George Springer led off the bottom of the first with a single up the middle. He stole second and advanced to third on Bo Bichette’s infield single. A great situation, no doubt. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr. promptly struck out, as did Brandon Belt, while Bichette was caught trying to steal second base to end the frame.

• The bases were loaded with two out for Bichette in the second, when he promptly flew out to right field. 

• Another bases-loaded situation in the sixth inning with Kevin Kiermaier stepping to the plate against left-hander Cionel Perez, who had just walked Danny Jansen on four pitches. Kiermaier drove the first pitch he saw to shortstop, which was flipped to second for an inning-ending double play.

• Matt Chapman — who put the Blue Jays on the board in the second inning with a solo home run — had a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the seventh inning to tie the game at two, but that was followed by a Whit Merrifield strikeout. Sure, the Blue Jays scored, but ideally would have liked to plate more than just the one run.

• And finally, some honourable mentions that emphasize the state of the offence: Cavan Biggio was tagged out at second after oversliding well past the base and Merrifield, representing the winning run in the 10th inning, was picked off at first by the pitcher.

The lost opportunities were plentiful and overshadowed a strong outing by Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman, who was his stellar self while twirling an eight-inning gem. 

The right-hander allowed just two runs on six hits, walking two and striking out four. With his velocity up across the board, Gausman leaned on a fastball that averaged 95.2 m.p.h. and topped out at 98 m.p.h. He tossed a season-high 115 pitches, giving the Blue Jays offence as much time as possible to sort itself out.

“Just empty the tank, give it all you got,” Gausman said when asked of his mindset entering the eighth inning having thrown 99 pitches. “Obviously done well enough to get to that point so just stay where you're at and believe in yourself and rely on your defence. Today they made some incredible plays behind me that helped me out.”

One such mind-blowing play came in the fourth inning, when Gunnar Henderson crushed a fastball to deep centre field. Kiermaier gave chase at full speed before timing his jump and leaping with his glove arm fully extended to make a highlight-reel catch as he crashed into the wall.

“He looked like he was floating out there,” said Gausman. “I thought he jumped way too early, but he just stayed in the air and obviously made a great play. Was happy he was okay after because he hit the wall pretty hard.

“He's been that sparkplug for us, really from Day 1.”

The game stayed tied at two until the 10th inning, when Cedric Mullins singled to right field off Blue Jays reliever Nate Pearson to drive in Jorge Mateo. In the bottom half, Merrifield knotted the score again with a single up the middle off Orioles reliever Austin Voth.

In the 11th, though, the Orioles delivered a knockout blow by stringing together four consecutive hits off Blue Jays reliever Yimi Garcia to plate three runs and Mullins followed that by crushing a double to the right-centre field gap that added two more and put the game out of reach. 

The loss ensured the Blue Jays finished their homestand at 4-6. It began in promising fashion with the sweep over the Braves, but that was followed by three losses in four games to the New York Yankees and then three straight to the O’s.

While Schneider said he believes his players have handled the recent skid “extremely well,” Gausman noted they’re confident as a group that things will eventually click in the other direction.

“We're grinding right now,” he said. “Everybody's trying to obviously get that big hit in the big situation. But teams have really pitched really well against us. The arms we saw in the last two series are pretty impressive. So, just a mixture of that and facing really good teams … But these guys, you always feel like they're going to put it together and they're going to figure it out. Obviously, it hasn't been the last couple games, but I still feel confident in every one of those guys.”

Sunday’s loss dropped the Blue Jays’ record against AL East opponents to 6-11 this season and things won’t get any easier in the short term as the club now sets out on a road trip that features four games against the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays and three versus the Minnesota Twins, who sit atop the AL Central.

“We play the team that's leading the division for the next four days, so we don't really have the time to hang our heads,” said Gausman. “We're going to Tampa playing a really good team and obviously we need to turn it around. That's the good thing about baseball — you don't even have time to really think. We play again tomorrow and [are in the middle of] 17 straight games so we've got to figure it out.”