The Toronto Blue Jays seemingly had at least a sliver of hope trailing 4-2 against the Texas Rangers heading into the eighth inning of the series finale on Thursday.

Any thoughts of a much-needed comeback, however, went out the window during an awful frame at Rogers Centre.

The Rangers sent 10 men to the plate and scored five runs to turn a close game into a rout. Texas won 9-2 to sweep a critical series.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider called on Trevor Richards to pitch in leverage to open the inning, despite the fact he had given up seven runs in his past four outings.

Ezequiel Duran opened the inning with a double before Evan Carter walked.

Former Blue Jay Marcus Semien then cashed in Duran with a double, leading to the first boos of the night -- with more to follow later in the inning.

The Blue Jays then intentionally walked the red-hot Corey Seager before Nathaniel Lowe delivered a two-run single.

That prompted Schneider to replace Richards with Yimi Garcia with perhaps the loudest boos of the night coming as the manager made the walk to the mound.

Asked why he went to Richards after the game, Schneider was short with his response, saying “I think he has 94 strikeouts in about 60 innings this year.”

Things went from bad to worse on Garcia's first batter. The reliever fielded a sacrifice bunt by Leody Taveras, but looked to first and then to third and ended up having no play.

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"That's just unbelievable right there," analyst Buck Martinez said on the Sportsnet broadcast. "He bunts it right back to the pitcher, but there was no play at third definitely and you had to take the out at first base and they end up getting nothing."

A bases-loaded walk to Robbie Grossman followed to make it 8-2.

Garcia finally got the first out of the inning when he struck out Jonah Heim before Texas completed the scoring on a sacrifice fly by Josh Smith.

It was the Rangers' second five-run inning of the series. Texas outscored Toronto 35-9 in four games.

How the Blue Jays unravelled in a disastrous eighth inning vs. Rangers

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