The Toronto Blue Jays were blown out 10-1 in the series opener in San Francisco against the Giants on Monday, marking the team’s third-straight loss and 10th in its past 13 games.
Monday’s loss was another ugly one, where the team mustered just three hits and performed poorly in all facets: hitting, pitching, and even defence.
The sort of loss that prompted the usually-calm Blue Jays manager John Schneider to express his frustration in a rare showing to the media after the game.
“We sucked today,” Schneider said. “Plain and simple, from start to finish.”
West Coast road trips tend to be a challenge for the teams from the east, and this nine-game swing through Seattle, San Francisco and next San Diego has already proven to be a struggle for the Blue Jays. The Jays scored in just one of 27 innings in three games against the Mariners, and have 13 hits over the first four games of this road trip.
Kazuma Okamoto’s home run in the sixth inning on Monday snapped a 29-inning scoreless drought, and the team has committed five errors over their past three games.
They haven’t looked anything like the team that took the Los Angeles Dodgers to the brink in the World Series a season ago, falling in extra innings in Game 7.
“Consistency and fundamentals. The things we were so good at last year, we just haven’t been as good at this year,” Monday’s starter Kevin Gausman said. “Whether it’s fielding the ball or running the bases, protecting the baseball is something we did great at last year. This year, we just haven’t been great at it for whatever reason.”
The loss dropped the Blue Jays to a season-high seven games under .500, and Schneider is trying to stay even-keeled as the team continues to flounder.
“It’s really easy to go in and scream. Right now, I feel like I could go do that to a stranger walking down the hallway here,” Schneider said. “But I think you have to stay focused on what is best for the player, what is best for the person.”
The struggles have the team considering a closed-doors team meeting - something Schneider proudly avoided last season, when he told reporters after the World Series that avoiding team meetings is the sign of a “good clubhouse.”
“It depends on who’s running it and what’s being said. When that will happen, we’ll see,” Gausman said of a team meeting. “We’ve had some discussions internally. You never know how that’s going to go.”
Gausman added that the veteran leaders need to talk and find a way out for the group.
The Blue Jays haven’t shown signs of life in a while. They held a winning record in May (.517 winning percentage) after a slow start to the year, but that faded in June (.423 per cent) and July has gotten off to an even worse start (.400 per cent).
Toronto has scored more than two runs just once in its past eight games, and now sit tied for 28th in runs scored and 25th in home runs hit.
Ernie Clement, who is starting at second base at the All-Star game next week for the first time in his career, tried to shine a ray of positivity after Monday’s game.
“When you’re not at your best, you’ve got to lean into your boys, into your teammates,” Clement said. “It’s close. I think it takes something super small just to get out of it. It could be as small as somebody beating out a routine ground ball or making a diving play in the field. Something little like that can jumpstart us and get us out of this. It’s really important that we emphasize that it’s not over.”
The clock is ticking for that small play to knock the team out of its funk, though they still sit just 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot in an American League that has few teams pulling away in the standings.
