Olney: Landscape of AL East keeping struggling Jays in the race

The Toronto Blue Jays have had a difficult start to the season, with injuries and underperformance leading to a 6-9 record.

With more than 90 per cent of the season still to go, the math suggests the Blue Jays are nowhere near out of contention. ESPN’s Buster Olney agrees and points out that no team in the American League East has separated themselves from the pack early on, either.

Olney joined TSN 1050 Toronto’s First Up Tuesday morning and said the Jays still have plenty of time on their side to turn things around.

“If you compare it to a marathon, they’re like in mile four right now of a 26-mile run. And maybe the Jays aren’t feeling so good and they’re kind of wondering where they’re going to be, but they’re looking around and the pack is holding together… That is, I think, the one saving grace for the Blue Jays at this point is that you haven’t seen a team just run off.” Olney said.

The Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees are tied atop the AL East at 9-7 with the Jays two and a half games back at 6-9. The Boston Red Sox (6-10) are last after starting 2-8.

“Man, the landscape of the American League East, there is a lot of that going on. Garrett Crochet giving up 11 earned runs last night for the Red Sox. The Yankees had lost five games in a row. So it’s not as if someone is taking off and hiding from the pack early,” Olney said.

“Jazz Chisholm is off to a slow start, the [Yankees have] had guys in their lineup off to a slow start. Their bullpen has been leaking. I mentioned Garrett Crochet with his struggles last night. Pete Alonso hit a home run yesterday where maybe that’s going to be a breakout for him, but he has struggled early on.”

The Blue Jays had lost six games in a row but picked up a comeback win in their series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers last week and carried that momentum into a win Friday night in Minnesota to open that series.

But starters Eric Lauer and Max Scherzer allowed seven and eight earned runs, respectively, during the next two games of that series and put the Jays in too deep a hole for their offence to dig out of, dropping them three games below the .500 mark.

Manager John Schneider said his team has to continue to push amid injuries and underperformance.

“We’re missing some guys,” Schneider told reporters Sunday. “It’s not an excuse, but I think we’re missing that hit to kind of keep that flow where it should be.

“You just have to push on through. The minute you start thinking about it or dwelling on it, it keeps going. It could be a grand slam. It could be a broken bat. It could be a swinging bunt. You need something to go, and then hopefully it turns for us.”

The Jays currently have 10 players on the injured list, six of whom have gone on the IL since the start of the season. Four of those injuries are to key starters Shane Bieber, Trey Yesavage, Jose Berrios and Cody Ponce, and three more involve players from Toronto’s Opening Day lineup in Alejandro Kirk, George Springer and Addison Barger. Anthony Santander, Bowden Francis and Yimi Garcia also remain sidelined.

“If you’re the Jays, at this point with all the injuries, just crazy. John Schneider the other day as you guys saw when reporters went up to him, I think it was last Thursday and he’s like, ‘It’s normal! We don’t have injuries to report today.’ Because it’s felt like day after day after day they had all kinds of stuff going on,” Olney said.

The Blue Jays begin a nine-game road trip Tuesday night in Milwaukee and will also make stops in Arizona and Los Angeles for a matchup with the Angels.