Listless Blue Jays take meaning out of meaningful September baseball in blowout loss to Rangers

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. #27 of the Toronto Blue Jays puts on his hat after hitting a pop fly to end the sixth inning of their MLB game against the Texas Rangers at Rogers Centre on September 13, 2023 in Toronto. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)

Meaningful September baseball?

Could have fooled a Blue Jays (80-66) team supposedly in the midst of it and an abandon-ship fan base that is staying away in droves as its team nose-dives its way through one of the most critical series of the season.Three games up against the suddenly surging again Texas Rangers (81-64), three games down.

This time it was a dispiriting 10-0 Blue Jays loss on Wednesday night at the Rogers Centre, a contest played out in front of yet anther small (by comparison) crowd, perhaps indicative of a restless fan base grown weary of the frustration.

With little to cheer about, many among the announced crowd of 25,495 jeered with increasing lust as the night spiralled out of control.

“I get it,” Jays closer and Markham native Jordan Romano said. “(The fans) want to see a good competitive game. It’s a big series and they didn’t get what they wanted.

“I’ve been a fan of this team growing up. I’ve been there. I don’t know if I’ve ever booed, but I understand it for sure.”As the losses pile up and the sky-is-falling feeling heightens, the Jays are heaping more onto the workload just to make it to the playoffs as a maddeningly inconsistent season continues.

The “we’ll get ’em next time” refrain that has been the anthem of the 2023 season is getting more off-key by the day, especially after losing by a total of 26-7 through the first three of a four-game series that concludes here on Thursday.

“Baseball is tough,” manager John Schneider said. “You just want guys to be who they are. I think there has been some ebbs and flows with individuals. There’s been ebbs and flows with the team.

“It seems to have happened, whether it’s pitching or offence at inopportune times. That’s been the story of where we are at this point.”

A big part of it, anyway, including chapters in which the team’s top hitter Bo Bichette is 0-for-12 in the series thus far and some wobbles from the previously rock-solid starting rotation.Case in point on Wednesday was Yusei Kikuchi getting rocked for two big home runs and a season-high six earned runs in his five innings of work.

“We all know this is a big series,” Kikuchi said. “We’re all disappointed. All we can do is flip the page. I knew how important this game was and really wanted to win.”

This was always going to be a big series for the Jays, a potential springboard into a run to take some of the stress out of the final two weeks of the season. Instead it’s been a dud so far, especially in the latest debacle, as a team masquerading as a playoff contender suffered it’s worst loss since an 11-0 drubbing at the hands of the Miami Marlins on June 19.A third consecutive defeat to an opponent they could have all but taken care of this week dumped the Jays to 1 1/2 games behind the Rangers for the second AL wild card spot and a game behind the Seattle Mariners, who hold down the third wild card position.

This still may be a playoff team, but right now it’s hard to buy in on the prospect. The Jays have three fewer wins than the 2022 team did through 146 games and are about to be in a fight for their post-season lives.

“(Is it) frustrating? No,” Schneider said. “We know the character and the talent that’s in the clubhouse. We trust that. As tough as the last couple of games have been, you really just have to focus on tomorrow.“It’s not concerning. If the season was going to be over tomorrow, it’s concerning. We’ve got two weeks ahead of us. It’s not the way we wanted the series to go so far.”

Texas Rangers' Robbie Grossman celebrates his two-run home run against the Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Toronto on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. — Texas Rangers’ Robbie Grossman celebrates his two-run home run against the Blue Jays during the fifth inning in Toronto on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023. Photo by Nathan Denette /THE CANADIAN PRESS

On Wednesday, the savvy hitting of the Rangers took care of business the way good teams do: By seizing their opportunities. In this one, it was belting a pair of homers off Kikuchi — a three-run shot by Nathaniel Lowe in the third and a two-run blast by Robbie Grossman in the sixth.

As has been the case on far too many nights, the listless Jays offence had no answer, mustering just three hits through six innings when the game was as good as over.

And the uglier it became, the more irked the crowd became, raining down boos on George Springer, Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr. in that quick sixth, a flashpoint for what this team has been mustering offensively of late.No, the Jays aren’t done yet, though a blowout loss in the thick of a playoff race feels precisely like that to a fan base that seems more disgusted than it has been in several years.

Through three-quarters of a non-competitive series against a team they are now chasing, the Jays have done little to inspire their fans, a point punctuated by the few thousand who remained to see a ninth-inning homer from the Rangers’ Mitch Garver.

Nobody in the Jays clubhouse liked it, but add it to the lumps inflicted by the Rangers in the preceding two hours 27 minutes.

“I understand fans want to see exciting, winning baseball,” Schneider said. “Us as competitors, staff, players, you don’t like to hear it, but at the same time we appreciate when they are voicing their frustration when it is deserved.”

The immediate challenge? Change the tune on Thursday when Toronto ace Kevin Gausman is on the mound looking to help his team avoid a sweep.