TORONTO -- These past two days, the Rays have looked like a team specifically designed to expose all of the Blue Jays’ flaws.
Tuesday’s scoreboard showed a 12-2 loss for the Blue Jays, but this felt like too many days they have had recently, all of them blurring into one another as the last Wild Card spot drifts further away.
“I think we’re all frustrated,” said Kevin Gausman, who allowed five runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks in 3 1/3 “We know what this team can do and what it has done. It bleeds into that, for sure. Nobody wants to be in this situation. It sucks because this is the same group of guys. It’s hard.”
This is what mattered most from Tuesday:
1. One eye on the Wild Card standings
Well, maybe both eyes at this point.
With the Orioles-Red Sox game postponed by heavy rain in Boston, the Blue Jays’ loss drops them to six games back of that final Wild Card spot. They’re chasing the hottest team in baseball in the Red Sox, though, who have won 14 games in a row and sit just one win shy of tying their franchise record. Five teams sit between the Blue Jays and Red Sox, too. There’s no good news to be found on MLB.com’s Wild Card standings, even if you can’t stop checking it.
This is all moving in the wrong direction right now. There are 11 games between now and the Deadline on Aug. 3, and at this point, the Blue Jays need more than just some series wins. This club’s only option is to do what the Red Sox have done -- or at least a good chunk of that -- to save themselves from selling.
“We need to start impacting the baseball way more than we are right now. That’s about it,” manager John Schneider said. “We’ve got to play tighter on defence. It’s a fine line of these guys playing tight. They’ve just got to go do it. It’s easier said than done. This league is tough. This league will chew you up and spit you out.”
2. Where is Daulton Varsho’s power?
Let’s go back to Spring Training for a moment, back before this strange, frustrating season began.
Daulton Varsho, fresh off hitting 20 homers in just 71 games in his injury-shortened 2025, looked fantastic. Sure, it’s just Spring Training, but Varsho looked like a hitter primed to have a massive season heading into free agency. That hasn’t happened, though, and Varsho has just seven homers with a .684 OPS through these first 101 games after chipping in an RBI single Tuesday.
Strength and talent aren’t the issues here. While not the biggest athlete on the team, Varsho is built for power and can put on a show in batting practice when he wants to. This is more about Varsho’s mental approach, and at this point, his manager wants to see him loosen up. Another hitter chasing singles won’t help this lineup.
“Let it rip. You don’t have to hit .280 to be productive. He showed that last year,” Schneider said. “I get where everyone is in their careers, and you want to have your numbers be a certain thing. I’m just reminding him that his value is in that. You need to hit some balls in the seats and you need to play good defense.”
Varsho came to the plate in a big spot in the first inning, with the bases loaded and just one out, but hit a soft pop fly to third baseman Junior Caminero. The big moments seem to keep finding Varsho, but it’s been nearly a month since his last home run (June 23).
3. What can Schneider do?
The manager made it clear Monday that even if everyone wants him to get red in the face and call out his team, that’s not happening. His job, for now, is to be the steady voice at the top.
What else can Schneider do, though? Are there any other lineups he can try, beyond drawing names from a hat? Tuesday’s version of trying something new was batting Ernie Clement third.
“Trying something different, trying to get some contact with some guys on base,” Schneider said. “He’s been one of our best hitters, and we’re not scoring, so we’re changing it up a little bit and we’ll see how it goes.”
This is where the Blue Jays are at right now, and frankly, these “let’s just see what happens” changes are all that’s left. They’ve used up all of the “good” ideas -- or at least all of the obvious ones -- and are left to hope that something sticks.