ATLANTA — A few days ago, the Toronto Blue Jays were on the brink of reaching the .500 mark for the first time since early April.
Three losses later, their record sits at 29-32 and their resilience is being tested once again.
Reinforcements are coming, and the Blue Jays have been making things close, pushing until the very end again Tuesday. Yet their offence continued struggling as the Blue Jays lost the series opener to the Atlanta Braves 4-3.
While Gausman allowed four runs on five hits, he had no trouble missing bats against MLB’s second-best offence. The right-hander struck out eight while generating 19 swinging strikes on 96 pitches — an exceptionally high ratio.
But a leadoff walk to Ronald Acuna Jr. came around to score in the first and Matt Olson homered to lead off the sixth, leading to four earned runs.
Offensively, the Blue Jays managed only three runs on nine hits against the NL East leaders — two apiece from Nathan Lukes, Yohendrick Pinango, Ernie Clement and Okamoto plus a double into the left field corner from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Otherwise, the offence had no answers for Bryce Elder and the Atlanta bullpen, as George Springer, Daulton Varsho, Andres Gimenez and Brandon Valenzuela all went hitless. In the course of a long season, there’s naturally an ebb and flow to player production but few would have predicted that Springer (.632 OPS) and Guerrero Jr. (.777 OPS) would be here in early June.
For the Blue Jays to turn their season around, they need more from those established stars. With two runners on and a chance to tie the game in the ninth, pinch hitter Jesus Sanchez popped up to end the game.
Before the game, manager John Schneider shared one of his most optimistic injury updates in weeks. Starters Dylan Cease, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber are all tentatively slated for rehab starts at triple-A this week while relievers Yimi Garcia and Tommy Nance are progressing, too.
Perhaps most encouraging of all: Catcher Alejandro Kirk will begin a rehab assignment Wednesday as his broken left thumb has healed enough that he’s been facing live pitching again. Not only does Kirk excel on defence, his bat to ball skills and sneaky power will be a welcome addition to this lineup, too.
In the meantime, the Blue Jays need to regain some of the ground they lost starting Wednesday with Patrick Corbin.