The Jays never found their footing in a 6-1 loss to the Royals, and the whole thing tilted hard before the game had even settled in.
Kansas City jumped on Spencer Arrighetti immediately. Brett Bateman was hit by a pitch to open the night, Nathan Lukes grounded into a double play, and Vladimir Guerrero followed with a groundout.
Then the bottom of the first turned ugly fast: a single, a walk, and then Vinnie Pasquantino launched a three-run homer. Before the Jays recorded an out, it was 3-0.
The rest of the inning was just cleanup.
The Royals added two more in the third on a Salvador Perez home run, then tacked on another in the fifth after a walk, a hit-by-pitch and a single.
Arrighetti finished with 4.2 innings, allowing 6 hits, 3 walks and striking out 3. With the rotation short, the Jays are going to need him to sort things out.
The bullpen did its part better, giving up just 1 hit over 3.1 innings while walking 4 and striking out 5. Braydon Fisher got 0.1 innings, Ricky Tiedemann worked 1.2, and Joe Mantiply covered 1.1.
Toronto actually finished with 8 hits, one more than Kansas City, but the power gap told the story. The Royals hit two home runs; the Jays had one, Josh Smith’s solo shot for their only run.
Bateman led the way with 3 hits. Lukes, Straw, McAdoo, Smith and Springer each chipped in one. On the other side of the ledger, Vlad, Sanchez, Okamoto, Keys, Gimenez and Valenzuela were held hitless.
Bateman got the nod for Jay of the Day at 0.07, while Arrighetti finished at -0.29 and Lukes at -0.09 for the other award.
The Jays still took two of three from the Royals, which is nothing to sneeze at, but three of three would have been nicer. Next up, they head to Sacramento to face the A’s. Dylan Cease and Jacob Lopez are set to start tomorrow in a 10:00 Eastern late one.
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Blue Jays Need Their Top Two Starters To Stop This Slide
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Now the focus turns to the top of the rotation, with Dylan Cease lined up for Game One and Jose Soriano expected to follow in Game Two. Cease comes in with a 2.25 ERA and just authored a six-inning shutout of Cleveland, the kind of outing Toronto needs again as it tries to stop the slide, while the Game Three starter remains unsettled for now. [Read more 🡒]