TORONTO — If it feels like every Toronto Blue Jays game of late has been the same, well, it’s because that’s the truth.
Each of the three games in this series against the Texas Rangers has followed the same blueprint: Blue Jays starting pitcher puts team in early hole, offence tries to climb back, injects the crowd with hope, yet ultimately fails.
Kevin Gausman struggled on Thursday while rotation mate Patrick Corbin did the same the next day. On Saturday, it was right-hander Dylan Cease’s turn, and the song remained the same in what was a 7-4 loss to the Rangers in front of 41,657 at Rogers Centre that stretched the Blue Jays’ losing streak to five games.
“It's been the theme,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider.
Cease struck out the first two batters he faced and, for a moment, it looked like things were going to change. He then promptly issued three walks with a single as the Rangers opened the scoring.
The right-hander managed to settle down over the next three frames, but in the fifth, he struggled again, allowing a walk and two singles before being removed for left-hander Mason Fluharty, who allowed the inherited runners to score.
In total, Cease’s final line was an unflattering four runs on four hits over 4.1 frames, with five free passes and 10 strikeouts on 107 pitches (62 strikes).
“Too wild, honestly,” Cease said. “Not enough strikes, not getting ahead enough. I'm pretty disappointed.
“I'm just wasting so many pitches,” he added. “If I’m throwing a hundred-plus [pitches], I should be going six, seven [innings]. But just putting too many guys on for free and wasting pitches.”
Cease has now walked 13 batters over his past three outings and said he plans to take a “thorough look at everything,” including his mechanics, ahead of his next start, “but also kind of coming up with a simplistic plan that can be turned into action.”
His outing against the Rangers continued a troubling trend of short, inefficient outings from the Blue Jays' rotation. Amazingly, Toronto starters have pitched at least six innings only five times in June. That’s led to an unsustainable workload for a bullpen that now ranks third in MLB with 358.1 innings pitched.
“We obviously are talking about it,” Schneider said about the problem from his starters. “There's been inability to finish an at-bat when you can. I think how you do it is you stay on the attack, you stay in the zone, and you just sequence your pitches correctly. It's easier said than done, and times like these suck for sure, but I've said it before, these are, for the most part, veteran pitchers that understand what adjustments need to be made.
“So, you rely on that, you rely upon [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] and the pitching group to make those adjustments quickly because we got to do it pretty quickly.”
Meanwhile, down by six runs, the Blue Jays’ offence rallied with home runs from Yohendrick Pinango and Alejandro Kirk that energized the crowd. As well, corner infielder Sean Keys — called up from triple-A on Saturday along with Pinango, with Davis Schnieder sent to Buffalo and Jesus Sanchez to the 10-day injured list with a right ankle sprain — notched a single off Rangers reliever Joe Ross in his major-league debut.
Keys, who began the season in double-A before he was promoted to Buffalo earlier this month, was enjoying a breakout campaign, clubbing 21 homers and slashing .284/.409/.619 across 67 games.
The Blue Jays would like to give the 23-year-old left-handed hitter some runway, and Schneider is confident the team can find him pathways to consistent playing time, whether that's at first base, third or designated hitter.
Keys played at first on Saturday, while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went hitless in five at-bats as the DH, and George Springer had the day off.
"I'm not asking him to save the season or hit 30 homers here," said Schneider of Keys. "But I think the body of work overall says, okay, this should translate."
Keys, a native of Long Island, New York, admitted he didn't allow himself to think this call-up would happen soon.
"Honestly, no," Keys said. "Obviously, it's what I've been preparing for. It's what I've been playing for. But as soon as it did, it kind of moved fast on me. So, I was a little surprised, but I'm happy to be here now and ready to get to work."
Up next for the Blue Jays is Sunday’s series finale, with Shane Bieber toeing the rubber against Rangers’ right-hander Kumar Rocker as the club searches for a rewrite to the familiar script.
“It's frustrating,” said Schneider. “But I think it gets more frustrating if you allow it to fester. We can't allow it to fester. So, it starts with Biebs tomorrow. It starts with the lineup having a good approach against Rocker, and you got to just go.
“You got to just figure it out.”
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