TORONTO – Full credit to the Blue Jays’ pitching staff. Despite many early-season injuries they’re pitching better than expected. And credit to Brady Singer, the former Blue Jays draft pick who held the visitors scoreless for six innings at Kauffman Stadium Sunday afternoon.
But at some point soon, the Blue Jays really will need their offence to build some breathing room more often. On Sunday, they managed just two singles against the Royals, who won 2-0 thanks to Salvador Perez’s second game-winning home run in as many days.
“It’s obvious we didn’t hit,” manager Charlie Montoyo said afterwards. “Today the at-bats were not that great, but their pitcher deserves some credit because he threw the ball pretty good.”
Despite the best efforts of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays have not had an easy time scoring early on this season. On average, they’re scoring just 4.1 runs per game and they’ve scored more than five runs just three times all season. In four games against Kansas City this weekend, they managed just 12 total runs.
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Clearly that’s not enough, and the Blue Jays’ record of 7-9 reflects those offensive struggles. It’s been far from ideal.
At the same time, none of what has happened so far means these problems are here to stay. The big-league track records of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Rowdy Tellez, Marcus Semien, Cavan Biggio and Danny Jansen suggest they will all offer more offence than they have so far. Even a return to career norms would represent significant progress for those players.
Just as importantly, GM Ross Atkins told MLB Network Radio Sunday that the Blue Jays are “very close to adding Teoscar Hernandez (COVID-19) and George Springer (quad)” from the injured list. Montoyo doesn’t expect either to appear against the Red Sox this week, but both are considerations for next weekend against the Rays if all goes well. Whenever those two can return, the Blue Jays’ lineup will be much deeper.
“It takes more pressure off the other guys,” Montoyo said. “It’s going to feel good seeing Springer coming back to the top of the lineup just like the good lineups in baseball … it’s going to help for sure.”
With that in mind, there’s lots of reason to believe this isn’t who the Blue Jays are offensively. But even if it’s not a lasting issue, the slow start at the plate goes a long way toward explaining the Blue Jays’ series loss to Kansas City.
Somehow, Robbie Ray held the Royals scoreless through five innings despite having trouble commanding the ball all day. He left the bases loaded in each of the first two innings and walked a total of six on the afternoon, but still managed to keep runs off the board.
As usual, his stuff was there with a fastball that topped out at 97.2 m.p.h. and a lively slider. The problem was, he couldn’t control it often enough for the first few innings. To his credit, though, Ray escaped that early trouble and found a better rhythm later in his outing.
“That was my main focus: just grind it out and put up zeroes to give us a chance,” Ray said “Those last two innings, it started to click.”
Once Ray’s day ended, Tim Mayza kept things scoreless for an inning before T.J. Zeuch entered and allowed the decisive Perez home run. Later, Tanner Roark would enter in his new role as bulk reliever to cover the remaining 1.1 innings.
Defensively, Biggio was out of the starting lineup for the third consecutive game after injuring his right hand while fielding Thursday evening. Joe Panik got another start in place of Biggio, who’s still considered day to day.
After a flight to Boston, the Blue Jays have the chance to regroup with an off-day Monday before starting a two-game series against the Red Sox. Who knows, maybe the hitter-friendly confines of Fenway Park will help nudge a talented offence closer to where it needs to be.
