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KANSAS CITY — A painful error led to the Blue Jays’ first loss of the week and an avoidable rookie mistake contributed to their second.
As for the third? It’s hard to find much fault with how the Blue Jays played in a bizarre, rain-shortened 2-1 loss to the Royals Thursday but it counts the same in the standings nonetheless.
Trailing by just one run on a day some top Royals relievers were unavailable, the Blue Jays felt they had a chance to come back and win once the rain cleared. Instead, they were told the field was unplayable — too loose — even after the rain stopped following a three hour, 38 minute delay. After just five innings, the game was over.
“The entire day was handled kind of poorly,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “In my opinion, the field was significantly better (in the early evening) than it was in the third, fourth and fifth innings.”
“It’s a (crappy) way to lose a game.”
The field was undoubtedly soggy by early evening, but as Schneider noted, Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette “fielded a ball through a lake” to end the fifth inning. At least in the early evening, no rain was falling anymore.
“First things first, you don’t want to get anybody hurt,” Schneider said. “We obviously wanted to play and if it was deemed playable we would have loved to continue to play, but the league and the umpires, they don’t want to have anyone injured on their watch.”
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But while the Royals happily leave for Detroit, it was a frustrated Blue Jays team that packed its bags at Kauffman Stadium.
“That’s terrible,” one player said.
Now 13-13, the Blue Jays head back to Toronto having lost four of their last five after a Salvador Perez two-run homer off Jose Berrios made the difference Thursday.
Offensively, the Blue Jays’ bats were characteristically quiet as they scored just one run on three hits in the series finale. But they were facing Royals ace Cole Ragans and they only had five chances to bat before the rain arrived — the minimum allowed under MLB rules.
But it’s hard to pin this loss on the offence when the umpires determined the left side of the infield simply wasn’t safe enough to continue beyond five innings.
“The whole third base area was so spongey and soft that I couldn’t imagine Bo Bichette or Bobby Witt Jr. trying to field the ball to their left or right and planting and trying to make a successful throw,” umpiring crew chief Chris Guccione told a pool reporter. “That’s not good for the game, and for sure, the safety of the players is the No. 1 priority. We want to protect those guys.”
On the mound, Berrios was stellar, allowing only three hits on a day the rain fell steadily. But since he hung a slurve to Perez with a runner on in the first inning, the Royals took an early lead against Toronto’s opening day starter.
“It was a tough day out there, but we figured it out and competed,” Berrios said. “My grip (was a challenge), but also my spikes didn’t feel comfortable because it was wet and I was slipping.”
In total, the right-hander threw 67 pitches, walking three while striking out one, but Ragans was that much more effective. The only run the left-hander allowed came in the fourth inning, when Justin Turner doubled to left-centre and scored on an Ernie Clement RBI single.
And really, that was it. No drama and no mental mistakes but no offence to speak of and no win, either. A road trip that started in promising fashion with consecutive wins in San Diego ends with three straight losses.
As silver linings go this is a small one, but it’s worth noting that the rain provided the entire Blue Jays bullpen with a day off before Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers arrive in Toronto for three days starting Friday.
That’s especially noteworthy as Bowden Francis was placed on the injured list with right forearm extensor tendinitis before Thursday’s game. Under those circumstances, Yariel Rodriguez will no longer be part of a tandem and will instead operate a little more like a traditional starter, likely going 4-5 innings at a time.
Eventually, the Blue Jays hope to have upward pressure from Alek Manoah, whose rehab work continued Wednesday with a three-inning appearance on a chilly day in Buffalo. The right-hander threw 88 pitches while allowing six earned runs on seven hits, including two home runs, and four walks.
“Not ideal,” Schneider said. “A lot of pitches. I know it’s cold, but it wasn’t the next step forward that we were hoping for.”
The conditions made it tough for Manoah to grip the ball at times, but team decision makers wanted to see better command regardless. The Blue Jays are still making plans for Manoah’s next appearance, but it’ll likely come at triple-A sometime next week.
More pressing, though, it the question of how soon the Blue Jays can start scoring runs in bunches. Thursday’s game marked the 17th consecutive time they’ve failed to score more than five runs — a problematic streak that puts extra pressure on the pitching and defence even when they’re leading.
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