John Schneider isn’t treating this stretch like some soft landing for a team trying to find its footing.
He knows better than that. The Blue Jays manager has watched enough of this group to understand that nothing has come easy this season, and with 10 three-game series left, he’s not banking on anything suddenly getting simple now.
Tuesday at Rogers Centre fit that reality perfectly. Before the first pitch, the Jays took a hit when starter Shane Bieber was placed on the 15-day injury list with a shoulder injury. Then came the game itself, and a rough one at that: a 5-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals, who kept rolling with their ninth straight win.
The crowd of 43,245 got another sellout night, but urgency wasn’t always easy to spot as Toronto stumbled through the opening game of a critical home stand. The Royals, the hottest team in baseball, looked every bit like it. The Jays, meanwhile, kept handing over chances with sloppy defence and an offence that never really threatened until the end.
“It’s not a light part of the schedule,” Schneider cautioned before his team lost its 34th home game in 67 tries. “We’re all kind of right there. We’re one of those teams that’s under .500.”
That’s the hard edge of it for Toronto. The Jays have clawed their way back into the wild-card picture, but nights like this are the kind that can wipe all that momentum away in a hurry.
The loss also came with the same stale feel that has followed too many Toronto defeats this year. It was their third loss in four games, and the offence again offered little. The Jays scored once in the first inning on a Jesus Sanchez sacrifice fly, then didn’t score again until the ninth.
Even that late push ended badly.
Nathan Lukes delivered a two-run single in the ninth and tried to stretch it into a double, only to be thrown out and end the game. After searching all night for a big hit and finally getting one, Lukes’ aggressive turn kept Vladimir Guerrero Jr. from coming up as the potential tying run.
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Through 12 games, he has paired a .250 average with a strong walk rate and eight stolen bases, a mix that speaks to contact skills, patience, and impact on the bases even before the power shows up. The extra-base damage may come later, but for now the early returns are encouraging for a Royals system that can appreciate a young hitter already doing a lot of the little things well. [Read more 🡒]