The plot's getting redundant: Blue Jays fall behind, battle, fall short
This browser does not support the video element.
TORONTO – It feels like the movie “Groundhog Day” for the Blue Jays right now.
Only the setting is Rogers Centre and the script goes as follows: Their starter allows a first-inning run, only to see more tacked on before the offense comes alive just long enough to provide a glimmer of hope that’s eventually snuffed out.
For the third straight time in the four-game series, the Rangers rehearsed their lines, and it ended the same way – with a win for the visitors, 7-4 on Saturday.
The Rangers’ offense worked starter Dylan Cease for 30 pitches and a run in the first. It was the sixth time in six games on this current 10-game homestand that a Blue Jays starter has allowed a run in the first inning.
Texas would tack on five more in the fifth and one in the sixth.
Showing the same fight displayed in the first two games of the series, Toronto scored two of their own in the fifth and two more in the sixth, but it was as close as they would get.
Cease called himself “too wild” during his 4 2/3-inning outing, which saw him throw 107 pitches (62 strikes).
“Not enough strikes, not getting ahead enough,” Cease said. “I’m pretty disappointed. I’m just wasting too many pitches. Throwing 100-plus, I should be going six or seven [innings].”
As tough of a stretch as it has been for the starters, Cease is taking every game as a new opportunity.
He’s already looking ahead to what he can do to improve upon Saturday’s start.
“I want to have a good work week going in and make sure I get the ball in the zone,” Cease said. “Some of it’s going to be mechanical, but a lot of it will be targeting and focus. Taking a thorough look at everything, but also coming up with a simplistic plan that can be turned into action.”
This browser does not support the video element.
The emphasis has been on the struggles of the starting rotation of late, but some of the blame rests on the offense and an inability to score early.
Against Rangers starters through three games, the Blue Jays have scored just three runs on six hits over 18 innings.
On Saturday, it was Canadian Cal Quantrill who held the bats silent, spinning four scoreless innings and allowing two hits and one walk with five strikeouts.
“I wish I could just push a button and say, ‘Let’s get to the starter or have a clean first inning,’” manager John Schneider said postgame. “You want to fix it, but you have to trust that the guys are going to fix it. From a pitching side, it’s staying on the attack and trusting your stuff, not being afraid to be in the zone. From an offensive side, you have to be ready from pitch one.”
Coming into the homestand, it looked like an opportunity to get rolling against teams below the Blue Jays in the standings.
It hasn’t happened, but Schneider doesn’t want the disappointment to linger.
“I think every loss is frustrating,” Schneider said. “You have to take it a day at a time. It gets more frustrating if you allow it to fester. We can’t allow it to fester. It starts with Shane Bieber tomorrow and the lineup having a good approach against [Kumar] Rocker. You have to just figure it out.”