TORONTO — If it feels like every Toronto Blue Jays game of late has been the same, well, it’s because that’s the truth.
Each of the three games in this series against the Texas Rangers has followed the same blueprint: Blue Jays starting pitcher puts team in early hole, offence tries to climb back, injects the crowd with hope, yet ultimately fails.
Kevin Gausman struggled on Thursday while rotation mate Patrick Corbin did the same the next day. On Saturday, it was right-hander Dylan Cease’s turn, and the song remained the same in what was a 7-4 loss to the Rangers in front of 41,657 at Rogers Centre that stretched the Blue Jays’ losing streak to five games.
Cease struck out the first two batters he faced and, for a moment, it looked like things were going to change. He then promptly issued three walks with a single as the Rangers opened the scoring.
The right-hander managed to settle down over the next three frames, but in the fifth, he struggled again, allowing a walk and two singles before being removed for left-hander Mason Fluharty, who allowed the inherited runners to score.
In total, Cease’s final line was an unflattering four runs on four hits over 4.1 frames, with five walks and 10 strikeouts.
He threw 107 pitches and continued a troubling trend of short, inefficient outings from the Blue Jays’ rotation. Amazingly, Toronto starters have pitched at least six innings only five times in June. That’s led to an unsustainable workload for a bullpen that ranks fourth in MLB with 354 innings pitched.
Meanwhile, down by six runs, the Blue Jays’ offence rallied with home runs from Yohendrick Pinango and Alejandro Kirk that energized the crowd. As well, corner infielder Sean Keys — called up from triple-A on Saturday along with Pinango, with Davis Schnieder sent to Buffalo and Jesus Sanchez to the 10-day injured list with a right ankle sprain — notched a single in his major-league debut.
The comeback fell short, however, and up next is Sunday’s series finale, with Shane Bieber toeing the rubber against Rangers’ right-hander Kumar Rocker as the Blue Jays search for a rewrite to the familiar script.