TORONTO — In the week-and-a-half leading into this Bo Bichette-return series versus the New York Mets, the Toronto Blue Jays were, in the eyes of manager John Schneider, a team out of sync.
Early deficits built against their starting pitchers were costing them “the time-of-possession war,” forcing the lineup to “play defence on offence a little bit and guys have to be a little bit more patient or try to do a little more … as opposed to kind of playing offence on offence.” There were other cascading effects, too, toll on the bullpen among them.
To help the Blue Jays regain some rhythm, the coaching staff emphasized the team’s play “early in games, both when we're on the mound and at the plate, really,” said Schneider. “If you're playing from a hole, it's tough. The last series (against the Texas Rangers) was really frustrating. … It seemed like when we were limiting some runs, tough time generating runs. When we weren't limiting runs, it was OK, we can claw back. Generating offence early for us as a lineup is going to be important. And getting off to a good start on the mound is going to be important.”
They did just enough of both in Monday’s 2-1 series-opening win, but delivered only on half that equation Tuesday night, when Kevin Gausman rebounded from a pair of shaky starts with six innings of one-run ball that nonetheless resulted in a 3-0 loss.
Thanks to an adjustment in the angle of his shoulders identified by pitching coach Pete Walker — he’d been tilting them forward down the mound, rather than slightly back — he rode a bump up to 94.6 m.p.h. in his average fastball velocity to great effect. The veteran right-hander got 14 swinging strikes, punched out seven and sustained his only damage on Francisco Alvarez’s solo shot to open the fifth.
Having buried his team in losses to the Cubs and Rangers, this time Gausman gave the Blue Jays every opportunity to pull out a victory.
“I could tell from the first fastball of the game that it kind of had that life that I'm used to having and split was good,” he said. “There are a lot of guys who use the slope to get down the mound fast. I'm one of those guys that go the opposite way. I have to kind of set my sights to carry the zone. Threw a great bullpen in between and that was the focus and it was good.”
Nolan McLean, however, kept the Blue Jays from capitalizing on that, pinning down a lineup missing Kazuma Okamoto, getting a scheduled rest day, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a late scratch after he felt back tightness while swinging pre-game, on five hits and two walks over six shutout innings.
Slumping as he may be, the order missed Guerrero’s presence, and the recurrence of his back tightness for the second time this month — after he missed consecutive games June 13-14 against the Yankees — offers both an explanation for his troubles and a cause for concern.
In the 13 games he’s played since returning June 16 from that initial absence, he’s 11-for-53 with only one home run and seven RBIs for an OPS of .482. It’s reasonable to think there’s an element of self-preservation in his selective effort running out balls.
Regardless, given that before this year he’d missed only 18 total games since 2020, him missing his fifth game of 2026 is an indicator of how restricting the back tightness must be.
Schneider played down concerns and sounded confident Guerrero would play Wednesday, saying that he didn’t “want to push it with him” after he’d made progress with his swing in pre-game work in recent days and made good contact Monday, when he ended an 0-for-12 skid with a single.
“Obviously he's been working a lot, I think that plays into how he's feeling. He's taken a lot of swings over the past week, week-and-a-half,” said Schneider. “He's where we want him to be and he's really close (at the plate), so I didn't want to set him back. Talking to him, he doesn't want to miss (Wednesday), either. He got treatment and got some rest. I told him today was a day he wasn't going to play unless someone got hurt and we needed him. All signs point to positive after today and hopefully good tomorrow.”
As for whether Guerrero is more beat up than in previous seasons, Schneider said, “whenever you have a little bit of a back thing, it can affect the whole swing, your overall game and I think everyone kind of battles through it. But he understands how he feels. He understands his body. I don't think it's anything really worse than what he's dealt with. But with the off-day coming after (Wednesday), too, and the progress that he's made to get to where he was (Monday), that was the deciding factor.”
As the capper to an 11-15 month in which they reached .500 on June 22, only to slide back to six games underwater at 40-46, it’s a dangerous trouble-spot heading into the crucial July period when strategies for the upcoming trade deadline are set.
They are in flux there and they’re back in flux in the rotation after shifting Patrick Corbin, who had been slated to start Wednesday’s finale against Freddy Peralta and the Mets. Braydon Fisher starts as an opener and Spencer Miles, who could have up to 50 pitches, is likely to be a key part of covering the day as the Blue Jays are likely to go stop-gap in that spot the one more time it comes up before the all-star break.
Beyond that, Max Scherzer threw a side session Tuesday, but will need one or two rehab outings before he becomes an option. Jake Bloss still needs to hit more pitching benchmarks to get himself back into the mix, and there’s Chad Dallas and Simeon Woods Richardson, who cleared waivers and remained in the organization at triple-A Buffalo.
Compounding matters for them against the Mets on Tuesday was the solo shot Luis Torrens hit off Mason Fluharty in the seventh to make it a 2-0 game and the errant pickoff throw by Tommy Nance in the ninth that helped A.J. Ewing eventually score on Brett Baty’s sacrifice fly.
In that way, the little things the Blue Jays did well to pull out Monday’s win were lacking on Tuesday, and for a team trying to get synced up all around, without the offence to cover up miscues, the smallest of details continue to play up big.
