TORONTO -- Jose Bautista has been down this road plenty of times before and knows all too well that there is no sense panicking about the Blue Jays' slow start to the season.
Toronto won its first two games of the year but has now lost four straight for the first time since May 13-17 of last season. Bautista did his part Saturday afternoon with a pair of home runs, but even that was not enough to salvage an otherwise disappointing day with a 8-4 loss to Boston.
The Blue Jays' pitching staff has allowed seven-plus runs in each of the last two games and has a 5.02 ERA in six games this season. Bautista is choosing to trust the process over the final results this early in the year.
"It's a long season. We're in the first week. These guys are extremely capable of doing their job," Bautista said. "There are going to be periods like this at some point, it's just happening now. We have to stay positive, we have a great team and just because we're 2-4 doesn't mean anything at the end of the day. We're not going to dwell on it too much, just come out tomorrow and finish the series with a win."
Despite Toronto's struggles on Saturday afternoon, Bautista's swing appeared to be in midseason form. He recorded the 29th multi-homer game of his career with a pair of two-run shots that gave the Blue Jays early leads they were not able to maintain.
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Bautista's first homer of the day was a two-run shot in the first inning off right-hander Rick Porcello. His second shot came two innings later, this one also off Porcello. It was yet another two-run shot with Josh Donaldson on second after a double, and this one gave Toronto a 4-3 lead.
"Same approach as I normally have, just go up to the plate and try to find a good pitch to hit," Bautista said. "I got a few today, and I was able to connect. I executed, and I'm sure if you guys asked [Porcello], he would rather have those pitches in a different location than where they ended up.
"I'll take it, putting runs up on the board is something that's important every single day and looks like I'm starting to contribute a little bit more."

Even with Bautista's two home runs his afternoon was not exactly flawless. The six-time All-Star allowed a ball in the fifth inning to bounce over his head and roll all the way to the wall. Boston's Hanley Ramirez should have been limited to a single but instead he wound up with a two-run triple as the Red Sox began to take control of the game.
"I was hoping to cut it off on a jump, but once I saw that it bounced pretty violently, and I wasn't going to get it on the jump, I just had to run after it," Bautista said. "Bottom line is I should not have let the ball get past me. I gifted them two runs and put a guy on third ... it's unacceptable, it shouldn't happen but it did."