TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays just got swept in Seattle, and they didn’t just lose. They got shut out twice in a row. Saturday was an 11-0 laugher. Sunday was a 4-0 grind. And Blue Jays manager John Schneider didn’t try to spin it.
“We got bullied out of here by fastballs the last couple games,” Schneider said after Sunday’s loss, via Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.
He wasn’t wrong. On Sunday, Toronto went 3-for-29 with two walks and six strikeouts. They were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position. That’s not going to beat anybody.
The tough part is that starter Trey Yesavage actually pitched well enough to win. He went six innings, allowed two earned runs on three hits, walked two and struck out seven. But his offense gave him nothing. Meanwhile, Mariners starter Emerson Hancock tossed seven scoreless innings with two walks and five strikeouts. It was a mismatch from the jump.
The offense has completely disappeared
Over the last seven days, covering six games, the Blue Jays are hitting .174/.239/.255 with a .494 OPS. That’s the worst in all of Major League Baseball over that stretch. Not just bad. The worst.
This is a team that was supposed to be a contender. They’re the reigning American League East champions. But right now, they look lost at the plate. They’re chasing fastballs up, whiffing on stuff middle-away, and not even making pitchers work hard. Emerson Hancock isn’t an ace. He’s a young arm finding his way, and he made Toronto look helpless.
So what’s the fix? The Blue Jays have to find some life before the All-Star break. They need momentum. They need a spark. They need to stop letting good fastball pitchers paint the edges and bully them into weak contact or no contact at all.
What’s next
Toronto sits at 42-48, well below where they expected to be at this point. Their next series is against the San Francisco 49ers — sorry, that’s a typo in the original notes, they’re playing the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park starting Monday. Three games in California, then a chance to reset before the break.
If the bats stay this cold, the All-Star break might be the only thing that can save them.
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