TORONTO — The videoboard above centre field at Rogers Centre sat frozen as the sixth inning unravelled on Simeon Woods Richardson and the Toronto Blue Jays, stuck at one on, one out and a 4-0 scoreline as the Kansas City Royals kept piling up the runs.
Not until Vinnie Pasquantino’s two-run drive capped a six-run outburst did the screen finally move, an updated linescore below a generic backdrop flashing the ugly 10-0 count amid heavy boos from a crowd of 42,261.
More boos loomed in the bottom half of the inning, this time for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after a groundout to second by the struggling slugger, and while George Springer’s two-run homer brought a brief respite of joy, it did little to mask the misery of a trying 13-2 setback.
Spencer Arrighetti, making his second start since returning from the injured list, allowed two runs in each of the first two innings before rallying with two clean frames. Woods Richardson, needing to both keep the game close and cover innings, did neither, pressing newly signed Michael Lorenzen into two innings of mop-up duty, and Myles Straw into his fourth appearance of the season in the ninth.
Combined with Noah Cameron killing the offence softly like Mark Buehrle would back in the day, it all added up to a second straight series loss for the Blue Jays (65-70), who also dropped to 3.5 games back of the idle Cleveland Guardians (68-66) for the American League’s third wild-card spot.
Rough all around.
“When you're getting your ass kicked pretty good, they're allowed to have their opinion,” manager John Schneider said of the boos. “But we love their support every night.”
Regardless, the Blue Jays have no time to lick their wounds, as two crucial series loom, the first beginning Friday against the Seattle Mariners (64-70), their opponent in last fall’s epic American League Championship Series enduring a similarly stilted follow up.
Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano and Max Scherzer are lined up to start, and how they fare will help determine the way they roll out for a three-game set at Cleveland that begins next Tuesday. The club’s hope is to throw both Cease and Soriano against the Guardians, using Monday’s off-day to keep them on regular rest, but they’ll need to avoid extending both this weekend to pull that off.
However that plays out, they still must decide how to approach Tuesday’s series opener, which currently lines up with the vacancy created by Shane Bieber’s trip to the IL. Arrighetti could start that game on regular rest, but he may need the extra day as he’s still building up on the fly.
He reported no issues with the nerve issue in his right foot for a third straight start, which is important progress, as is reaching 79 pitches, although the Blue Jays would have preferred that spread over five rather than four innings. But between finding his top form, integrating what he called an abbreviated slide step and adjusting to a new team amid a playoff push, “there's a lot going on,” he said.
“It makes your head spin some days and other days you're convinced that you finally found it,” Arrighetti continued. “That's the beauty of baseball, there's always those little things going on in the background. … Obviously, I'd like to give the team more of a chance when we're in a push like we are. I feel like I didn't really do that tonight, and that'll be my goal the next time out.”
The Royals ambushed him out of the gate, with Carter Jensen crushing a leadoff homer on Arrighetti’s second pitch, with another run scoring on the pitcher’s fielding error when he whiffed trying to scoop and shovel home a Salvador Perez roller. Two more crossed in the second on Jac Caglianone’s two-run single, the right-hander lamenting inconsistencies in execution.
Improving on that front requires "dedicating more conviction to the pitch, believing that's the right pitch, believing that's the right spot and just getting it there. There's no other way to word it. It's a conviction and an execution thing. It's a fickle game. Sometimes results will swing your confidence one way or the other, but I try to stay as grounded as I can, somewhere right in the middle, not too high, not too low and just make the next pitch.”
How he ultimately fits the puzzle is still being determined while Jameson Taillon, slated for a rehab start with triple-A Buffalo on Friday, won’t be ready to return before Wednesday, restricting the Blue Jays’ options as they seek to concentrate innings in the hands of those they trust most.
Given all that uncertainty, Lorenzen, released nearly a week ago by the Colorado Rockies, adds another versatile arm into the mix, for at least a short time, but perhaps longer depending on how things go.
“Availability for length, availability to do a lot of different things and with our bullpen kind of being in flux in terms of availability, you pick up a guy that's done it before and that can basically throw every day,” said Schneider. “He was like, literally, whatever you want, I can throw 100 pitches today if you need me to. He's like, you can try to break me, it's not going to work.”
Said Lorenzen: “I feel ready to jump in. Throw me in there. My arm feels good, body feels good. I got a nice little all-star break rest, I guess you could say. I feel fresh, I told him he can use me however he needs to.”
That goes across the roster right now, and as the Blue Jays try to figure out how to navigate games on the mound, they continue to seek ways to get more at the plate, as well.
Guerrero remains front and centre there, doing some of his pre-game work on the field to help track ball trajectory, but only finding more frustration later during an 0-for-3 with a walk night. His final out was a 114.7 m.p.h. groundout to third base, tying for the fourth hardest he’s hit a ball this season. The two balls he’s hit hardest this season also have gone for outs, while the search for his first home homer of 2026 continues.
“It’s been a weird year for Vlad, right?” Schneider understated. “I feel for him, everyone feels for him and it just seems like even if he's hitting the ball hard, it's at someone or it's on the ground. He's competing, he's working. He's doing everything that he can to try to be the player that he is. He's capable of hitting the ball that hard every single time up. We're going to continue to support him any way we can really. And I just like the fact that he was getting some good swings off.”
The runway to turn that into results is quickly shortening for Guerrero and the rest of the Blue Jays.
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