Scuffling Blue Jays head West in desperate need of offence
In their past 16 games the Jays have scored three runs or fewer in 10 of them and reached a total of four just four times.
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Nothing like an off day on the golf course to take some swings of a different variety and help forget about the frustration of a grinding and ultimately disappointing home stand.
That’s the plan for a couple of Blue Jays foursomes on Monday in SoCal, a welcome reprieve at one of Newport Beach’s finest layouts, by the Pacific Coast.
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Led by manager John Schneider, the group will chase birdies rather than base hits before a six-game trip commences against the Angels in Anaheim. It’s a mental break they all could use.
“You can tell these guys, they’re grinding a little bit,” Schneider said following Sunday after a demoralizing 5-4 loss to Cleveland that deflated a brief outburst of offence and modest three-game win streak earlier in a 3-3 stay at the Rogers Centre.
“You can’t let it drag. I think we made some progress offensively on this home stand and you’ve got to take it into the next series.”
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Those positives came mostly with some home-run power that helped propel the Jays to back-to-back come-from-behind wins over the Boston Red Sox. They were encouraging efforts, but only to a point for a team in search or offensive consistency throughout its first 34 games.
Jays general manager Ross Atkins was blunt as he acknowledged what has become the painfully obvious: His team doesn’t score enough runs.
“If I knew the answer, then I would have a better solution,” Atkins said on Friday when asked what the offence had to do to shape up. “We are working very hard to figure out how we can put guys in better positions.”
In their past 16 games — which includes a 1-9 run and losses in their past two on either side of that three-game win streak — the Jays have scored three runs or fewer in 10 of them and reached a total of four just four times.
That level of production is made all the more frustrating given those dramatic wins against the Red Sox last Wednesday and Thursday that injected a dose of optimism. Almost as quickly as hope appeared, it faded.
Atkins is right: This team does need to produce offence — and soon. The tight games are wearing on the team, as the manager and a couple of players we spoke with on Sunday articulated before the team bordered a charter flight to California.
A three-game winning streak felt good in the moment, but does little to generate momentum when they are 4-10 in their past 14.
As has been the case for going on three seasons, the troubles start at the plate.
“I feel like we’re going to be able to prevent runs with our defence and the starting pitching options and relief options that we have,” Atkins said. “I feel like we’re capable of scoring more and we will. But we need to.”
Following Sunday’s loss to the Guardians, the Jays have dropped four of their previous five series, the only win coming when they took two of three from the Red Sox to begin this past home stand. It’s impossible to develop traction with such meagre output.
With a 16-18 record, the Jays are in fourth place in the AL East, the same spot they were in 2024 when they had an identical record after 34 games. We all know how that worked out.
The Jays have a minus-32 run differential, among the worst in the American League and, after that brief surge earlier in the home stand, are once again the most benign power offence in baseball with just 23 homers, fewest in MLB.
Losses in their final two games of the home stand were symptomatic of the problems that have doomed them all season. They managed just two hits in the last five innings on Sunday and none in the last four on Saturday.
The good news, as those drinking from the glass-half-full mug will vow, is that with some underwhelming play from the rest of the American League thus far, the Jays are one sustained hot streak away from changing their narrative.
The reality is that they have to start hitting (and scoring) consistently, beginning with three games against the Angels followed by three in Seattle against the Mariners on this six-game West Coast journey. Thus far, the Jays are a weak 5-10 on the road, including a miserable 1-5 mark through Houston and the Bronx the last time they were away from home.
Essentially, this team has been playing about what the standings say they are: A fourth-place team not yet good enough to be considered a playoff contender but not bad enough to resemble the last-place version on display through the back half of 2024.
They have been as much as four games above .500 and as low as three games below, essentially teetering on or around mediocrity.
“Scoring more, obviously, is the answer to more consistency,” Schneider said. “You want to get some games where there’s separation.
“It’s hard and it’s a grind. It’s tough for everyone and these guys know that.”
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