Pair of Blue Jays finally find the seats, but strain on bullpen shows

NEW YORK -- When you hit home runs, everything else tends to blur into the background.

The Blue Jays haven’t hit for much power this season, which has left so many tight games to lean on the fine details. It’s no way to live.

Monday’s 7-6 loss at Yankee Stadium felt like it could be a glimpse of what life looks like with a little more juice, but the Bronx Bombers just had more of it. The blame will fall on Yariel Rodríguez, who allowed two home runs in the seventh to blow the lead, but all of this can eventually be traced back to the Blue Jays’ offense, which has slowly strained a bullpen already tasked with carrying too heavy a load.

Ernie Clement broke the game wide open with a three-run homer in the fourth, and given how many low-scoring games the Blue Jays have been stuck in, it felt like a five-run shot.

• Key takeaways: Yankees 7, Blue Jays 6

There’s a reason Ryan Weathers looked so bemused by it, too. The pitch was just 1.13 feet off the ground, and even after Clement made contact, it looked like a lazy fly ball that just kept floating. Weathers has allowed 58 home runs in his MLB career, but none on a pitch lower than Clement’s.

“I don’t know how that got out. Typical Ernie,” manager John Schneider said. “Then George [Springer] added on. That’s nice.

“Against this team, you’ve just got to limit walks and limit damage. That kind of showed early in the game, walking the bottom of the order and them generating some runs. If you’re walking guys and you’re not giving up the long ball, it’s a different story.”

• Scherzer nearing return -- but can he reclaim rotation spot from Miles?

Outside of Clement’s five-hit outburst against the Angels on May 9, he has been grinding just like everyone else. Few hitters in this lineup are more important to the Blue Jays’ offensive identity when they’re really rolling, though. Just think of the 2025 postseason run, all those times Clement kept the line moving and extending innings with his historic performance.

Springer joined the party with his first home run since March 30 and the best swing we’ve seen from the veteran leadoff man in a long, long time.

That should have been the story, and if Toronto is going to hang with the big dogs in this division, it will need to be the story more often. The Blue Jays are tied for 20th in baseball with 44 home runs, well behind the Majors-leading Yankees (71). A year ago, they were tied for 11th with 191, which was enough when paired with their top-to-bottom offensive identity.

This is about the short term -- winning a game like Monday’s -- but also the long term. The Blue Jays are already rolling out what is essentially a bullpen game every fifth day. On top of that, Patrick Corbin tends to throw about five innings, but he lasted just four on Monday. Each trip through the rotation, two heavy days are built in for the bullpen. If another starter falters, good luck.

One quick fix? The odd blowout, but Toronto has been stuck grinding out tight, low-scoring games. Eventually, all that strain adds up, and the Blue Jays are forced to turn to Rodríguez in a big spot like that, not one of their usual setup men.

Until Alejandro Kirk and Addison Barger return, the Blue Jays don’t have many other buttons to push. Schneider has already bumped Vladimir Guerrero Jr. up from third to second in the lineup. Monday, the struggling Lenyn Sosa got a shot at batting cleanup, another attempt to get something going, which is part numbers but largely a feel thing.

“He’s a lot like Ernie, I think. He’s going to swing,” Schneider said prior to Sosa going 1-for-3. “Right now, he’s probably trying to swing his way out of it a bit. Sometimes, being in the middle of things can help you out a bit. Chasing hits has been what I’m seeing.”

Any idea is a good idea at this point, but with Clement and Springer on Monday, the Blue Jays at least found something with their lineup.

One more big swing, and we’d forget all about Rodríguez’s ugly inning. We’d forget about Corbin allowing a home run on the first pitch of the game and walking the No. 8 hitter twice, just like we’d forget about the two errors. Power can do that in an instant.

The Blue Jays were almost there Monday. But until this offense really explodes, every corner of the roster will continue to feel it, especially those logging overtime in the bullpen.