The Toronto Blue Jays’ push for a wild-card spot hit a speedbump this weekend as the New York Yankees handed them their first full-series loss since before the trade deadline.
The Jays lost a tight one to Cy Young front-runner Cam Schlittler Friday night and bounced back with a 4-3 win Saturday, setting them up with a chance to win their eighth straight series, excluding the one-game make-up a few weeks ago against the Chicago Cubs.
But a rough sixth inning led to three runs for the Yankees and the Jays were unable to dig out of that hole, sending them to an 8-3 loss that dropped them to four games below .500 and a game and a half out of the final American League wild-card spot.
The three-run sixth and a two-run shot by Jazz Chisholm an inning after were the big blows, but the Jays’ inability to hit with runners in scoring position (RISP) was on display all weekend in the Bronx and wasn’t any better on Sunday.
In fact, situational hitting is something the Jays have struggled with all season.
Toronto was a combined 6-for-41 this weekend with runners in scoring position – defined as at least one baserunner occupying second and/or third base – and just 1-for-9 in Sunday’s defeat.
On the season, the Jays are dead last in MLB in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) with RISP at .682. They also have the sixth-worst batting average at .239 and the fourth-worst slugging percentage at .375.
“You’ve got to zone into a spot where you can drive the ball a bit more consistently,” manager John Schneider said via MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. “It’s not like they’re throwing 80 per cent breaking balls or fastballs in certain counts. I think you’ve just got to be a little more patient.”
The Jays’ futility in that area has been a major factor in their overall offensive struggles. Toronto is tied with the Texas Rangers (521) for the second-fewest total runs scored this season, trailing only the Seattle Mariners (513) for the low mark in MLB.
| Stat | Non RISP | RISP |
|---|---|---|
Couple that with average run prevention – they’re exactly 15th in total runs allowed – and you’ve got an extremely tight margin for success. The Jays’ minus-55 run differential is the worst of any of the seven teams pursuing a wild-card spot except for Seattle (minus-61) and is a far cry from last year’s plus-77 en route to winning the division.
Using this past weekend as an example, the Jays outhit the Yankees in the series 29 to 16, and the Yankees outscored them a total of 14 to eight. The Jays tallied 15 hits Saturday afternoon and needed Louis Varland to pitch around a leadoff double in the ninth inning to secure the save for the one-run win, which is a lot less than teams that outhit their opponent 15 to four usually win by.
The Jays were 4-for-18 (.222) with RISP that day, which wasn’t exactly good, but was miles better than their 1-for-14 showing the night before.
The Jays’ high-contract offensive approach can lead to them manufacturing runs in other ways, but they also lack the kind of power that makes scoring in bunches easy. The Jays are third-last in home runs hit this season (124) and third-last in slugging percentage (.380).
In other words, if they aren’t hitting the ball out of the ballpark, they need to get timely hits. So far this season, the Jays haven’t done much of either.
Despite all that, they sit just a game and a half out of a playoff spot. As TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips points out in his most recent column, the Jays do not have a game left on their schedule against a team currently over .500. They also have seven combined series against teams they’re battling for a wild-card spot.
There’s an opportunity to make a run right there for the Jays this season – and a few hits in big spots would help give them their best shot.
