Blue Jays start key stretch with late letdown against league-worst A’s

TORONTO – As similar as the core of the 2023 Toronto Blue Jays is to the clubs of the previous two years, it’s also fairly apparent nearly halfway through this season that the current team is also pretty different. They definitely defend better. They definitely run more often. Though the batting lines between this year and last are nearly identical, this iteration feels less explosive at the plate. Coincidentally, the Blue Jays of 2021 and 2022 had a pretty clear identity as a slug-centric group with enough pitching to be a threat, but now?

“I think we’re still finding it a little bit, we’re still finding our way,” said Matt Chapman, the star third baseman who is a driving force on the field and in the clubhouse. “We’re in a good spot but we’re starting to figure out what’s going to take us over to make that next step, what’s going to allow us to have a sustainable version of winning. When you start to figure out how you can play as a team and how you can find ways to sustain winning is when you start to get hot.”

A two-week stretch of games that provides ample opportunity for the Blue Jays to accomplish all of the above began Friday with a 5-4 loss to the Oakland Athletics, the worst team in baseball by a wide margin, settled on Shea Langeliers’ ninth-inning solo shot off Jordan Romano.

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Starter Chris Bassitt, looking to bounce back after a pair of rough outings, gave up a three-spot in the first highlighted by JJ Bleday’s two-run shot, cruised through the next three innings as the Blue Jays spotted him a slim lead, and then surrendered a Bleday sacrifice fly in the fourth that tied the game 4-4.

The Blue Jays did all their damage in the third as back-to-back doubles by Danny Jansen and Kevin Kiermaeir cut into a 3-0 deficit and eventually Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched his first homer at the dome this season, a three-run shot that was also his first longball since June 4.

But from then on there was nothing for both clubs until Romano hung a middle-middle slider that Langeliers launched well beyond the left-field wall. Trevor May locked the victory down to the chagrin of 34,988 at Rogers Centre, stranding a leadoff double by Guerrero as Chapman lined out to third baseman Jace Peterson, Tony Kemp stole a base hit with a diving stab on a Whit Merrifield soft liner and Daulton Varsho flew out to left.

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The current stretch for the Blue Jays, who had won two straight coming in, also includes series against San Francisco, Boston, the White Sox and Detroit. So far this season, they’ve really made hay outside the division, going 7-17 against the American League East and 34-19 versus the rest of baseball. Given the disparity, capitalizing on the current stretch is essential.

“I know what our record is outside of the AL East, that’ll be interesting to see how it plays out,” said manager John Schneider. “But we’ve been talking about it for the last week or so where, it’s time to really just show who we are, you know what I mean? No matter who we’re playing, no matter where we’re playing, it’s kind of time to show who we are consistently. It’s just being locked in mentally for nine innings every single game.”

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