TORONTO – There are times over the course of the 162-game grind when the opposition straight up beats you. Even to the very best of teams, it happens at least 60 or so times. That’s how baseball works – even its most successful must endure frequent failure.
What becomes concerning, however, is when a team in the type of lull the Toronto Blue Jays are attempting to trudge through right now starts to beat itself, the way they did in a 13-3 pounding from the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
Rather than looking sharp and crisp out of the gates the way the American League East leaders did in the showdown series opener before a crowd of 46,953 at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays were tentative and sloppy, delivering one of their ugliest games of the season.
Marco Estrada, who has an ERA of 7.71 over his past five starts, was badly outpitched by Rick Porcello. The heart of the Blue Jays lineup was outhit by the Red Sox order. And defensively, well, what a bad scene that was.
"Nothing went our way and obviously it all started with me," said Estrada. "When your starting pitcher is out there making a bunch of pitches like that it brings everybody down a little. I’ve got to do a better job right out of the gates to get quick outs, because obviously this can’t keep happening.
"We’re in a tight race and luckily we get to play these guys again (Saturday). You’ve got to have a short memory … and move on."
Among the things to forget is that the Blue Jays made two errors, could easily have been charged with three others and were all kinds of sketchy in their fourth straight loss. The losing streak is their longest since they dropped five straight May 14-18. They also lost four in a row at the beginning of the season, right after winning the first two games out of the gate.
"It’s uncharacteristic of us, so hey, put it behind you," said manager John Gibbons. "We haven’t seen that too often, really I can’t remember seeing any game like that in a long time."
The timing of this skid is especially troublesome given that the Blue Jays have ceded four games in the standings over the past nine days. The Red Sox lead the AL East by two games right now, while things keep tightening in the wild card race, too, as they’re just a game up on both Baltimore and Detroit for the first wild card spot.
Estrada’s recent struggles continued right out of the gate in a 36-pitch first, although the first run of the game came when a Mookie Betts base hit with two out skipped past Michael Saunders in right field, allowing Dustin Pedroia to score from first.
In the second, Jackie Bradley Jr., opened the inning with a walk, took second on a passed ball and scored on Pedroia’s base hit. Kevin Pillar’s throw home skipped to the backstop – Estrada didn’t back up the play – but Dioner Navarro recovered the ball and threw Pedroia out at third base.
The wheels really fell off during the third inning, when Melvin Upton Jr., dropped Betts’ liner to left field with one out, Hanley Ramirez flared a catchable ball over Edwin Encarnacion at first and Upton dropped a routine Travis Shaw can of corn as he was preparing to throw home, allowing Betts to come around. For good measure, Navarro nearly picked off Betts at third, but Josh Donaldson couldn’t hang on to the ball.
"It’s obviously a big series, I was trying to make a play and just didn’t catch it," said Upton, who was booed and later mock-cheered by the crowd. "It ain’t the first time I’ve been booed by a home stadium. Laughed about it with my teammates in the dugout and continued to play the game."
Having already recorded what should have been four outs in the inning, Estrada then surrendered a legit single to Sandy Leon that made it 4-0 Boston and ended his night. Aaron Loup induced a double play to end the frame, but the blows were already too much for the Blue Jays to recover from.
"It felt weird being out there," said Estrada. "I know I haven’t been pitching too well lately but my last outing (five runs in five innings at Tampa), I felt really good out there, was locating really well, and a couple of bloop hits here and there and then the big hit came and took me out of the game. I felt pretty good about it though and I tried taking the same mentality into this game and it just wasn’t quite there. I wasn’t locating as well.
"If I don’t have a good bullpen, I’ve got to let that stuff go, because it never goes down the same way. Usually I’m pretty good about stuff like that, but because I’ve been struggling lately, it carried into the game a little bit. I’ve got to go back to having that same mentality. Forget about the bad things really quick, have a short memory and keep working hard."
Opportunity beckoned in the bottom of the third when Saunders opened the inning with a single, Upton walked and Kevin Pillar blooped a ball just past Pedoria’s head. Devon Travis then snuck a two-run single through the left side that plated a pair and cut the deficit in half.
But Donaldson, now mired in an 0-for-16 rut, was caught looking by Porcello two pitches after taking a massive cut over top a slider, and then Encarnacion hit into a 5-4-3 double play.
The Red Sox responded immediately, tacking on another in the fourth on a Pedroia sacrifice fly and then putting a six-spot in the seventh – highlighted by a three-run homer by Hanley Ramirez.
The Blue Jays, meanwhile, threatened just once more while the game was still in reach with consecutive one-out singles from Jose Bautista and Troy Tulowitzki in the sixth. But Tulowitzki was called out for interference on Navarro’s popper when he collided with Ramirez at first base, and Saunders flew out.
"It’s obviously a very humbling game and that’s what’s happening to all of us right now," said Estrada. "We’ve got to keep fighting, keep working hard and things will change. We’re too good for it not to."
Garbage time ensued, the backups and Buffalo came out for the ninth and there was plenty of time to survey the damage from a night that felt very much like a low point. There’s little time to waste in starting the climb back up.