The Toronto Blue Jays appeared to be in good stead on Saturday, until Jeff Hoffman ran into trouble in the ninth.
It was a familiar sight as the hard-throwing right-hander allowed five earned runs, blowing a four-run lead as the Blue Jays lost 6-5 to the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
Hoffman first allowed a string of hits, before losing the zone and walking consecutive batters. He gave Orioles leadoff hitter Taylor Ward a free pass on four pitches and then bounced a slider to Gunnar Henderson that walked in a run.
Recent Blue Jays acquisition Connor Seabold entered with a 5-4 lead, then walked in a run and gave up a walk-off single. Both runs were charged to Hoffman.
It was only Seabold's second relief appearance with the Blue Jays after he was traded from the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
"You put Connor in a tough spot there," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after the game.
Hoffman started the inning strong, striking out Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo — who appeared to suffer an injury while swinging — on a sharp splitter. However, he then hit Coby Mayo with a pitch and the Orioles followed with three straight hits that put a Blue Jays lead that seemed safe in peril.
"They made some good swings on some sliders down, and then kind of just lost the zone for the walks," Schneider said.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 4-for-5 in the game and scored a pair of runs while Kazuma Okamoto extended Toronto's lead in the eighth inning with a two-RBI double.
But it was all for naught as the meltdown snapped a four-game Blue Jays winning streak and dropped them back below .500 at 29-30.
Entering play Saturday, Hoffman's 31-per-cent strikeout minus walk rate was fifth among qualified relievers and his .492 batting average on balls in play was first.
However, despite strong underlying metrics and numbers that indicate bad luck, his results — a 6.31 ERA and seven combined losses and blown saves — tell a different story.
It was also Hoffman's third time pitching in four days, and he had thrown more pitches than any other Blue Jays reliever over the previous three days.
"We're asking a lot of them," Schneider said. "Outings like that happen. It sucks. It's unfortunate when you go into the ninth with a lead, but these guys are all pitching a lot. (We're) asking them to cover a lot of innings, asking them to cover a lot of high-leverage innings."
Toronto will be aiming to win the four-game series in the finale on Sunday. Watch the game on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ at noon ET / 9 a.m. PT.
4:51
