One of the Blue Jays’ worst skids of the season has come at a most inopportune time.
A 7-1 loss to Boston on Wednesday night, coupled with the Yankees’ 8-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, left Toronto and New York tied for first place in the American League East Division standings.
The Blue Jays have dropped six of their last seven games. A five-game lead has vanished in just over a week.
Toronto (90-68) has a tiebreaker advantage over New York and still controls its own destiny with a magic number of four with four games left to play.
A direct berth to the division series hangs in the balance with the second-place finisher forced into a wild-card series.
“It feels like the sky is falling right now and it’s not,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider, throwing in an F-bomb for good measure. “I mean we’ve got 90 wins, we’re in the playoffs and if the season ended today, (we’re) winning the AL East. So I want them to come out (Thursday) and not press.”
Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer gave up three runs in the first inning and allowed a Masataka Yoshida solo shot in the fifth. Carlos Narvaez iced it with a three-run blast in the eighth inning off reliever Jose Berrios.
Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet kept the Rogers Centre crowd of 39,438 hushed by limiting the Blue Jays to three hits over eight shutout innings.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a solo homer for Toronto in the ninth. The Red Sox outhit the Blue Jays 12-4.
It can be easy to forget that Toronto’s slumbering offence leads the major leagues in several statistical categories. The Blue Jays also have the best home record in the AL at 50-27 and still own the first seed in the AL playoff picture.
If the bats wake up, this valley will be quickly forgotten. But that’s a big if after a four-hit showing against the Red Sox.
“I know things look bleak and it has been a rough week for us, but there’s going to be a game tomorrow,” Schneider said. “So we’ve got to figure out ways to score.”
Frustration is starting to show.
Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was tossed in the seventh inning for arguing a strike call. Hitting coach David Popkins was also tossed.
Louis Varland, normally a reliever, will start the series finale Thursday night as Toronto looks to avoid a three-game sweep.
Shane Bieber was originally given the starting assignment but he’s been pushed back a day to Friday’s series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays. Rookie Trey Yesavage will start Saturday.
The starter for the regular-season finale on Sunday will be determined over the coming days, depending on results.
The top two division winners will earn byes to the division series. The other four AL playoff teams will play in the wild-card round.
Grab some popcorn, baseball fans. The next few days should be very interesting.
“How we’ve been playing, it feels like we’re on the bottom of the world,” Scherzer said. “But baseball can flip in a heartbeat. Things can change overnight for no apparent reason.”
