The Blue Jays figured out the run scoring part on Sunday — for a couple innings, anyway.
The wildly inconsistent Jays have not lost for the sixth time in their past nine games and have dropped to the land of the mediocre on the road, where they are 20-21.
Mistakes away from the plate are becoming costly — and inexcusable — for a team still desperately waiting for its offence to heat up on a consistent basis.
Blunders on the basepaths and in the field changed the momentum of what should have been a much-needed cruise control win for the run-starved group.
Instead, it became a generous gift to the Rangers, who took two of three in the weekend series under the roof down at Globe Life Field.
And one play in particular on Sunday cost the Jays dearly in that it changed the momentum of a game the Jays seemed to have well under control after chasing Rangers ace starter Jon Gray after just 2.1 innings.
It feels like Guerrero is not only distancing himself from his home-run king status but also from his gold glove form in what has been the worst season of his young big league career.
Add an error from Kevin Kiermaier in the third and the Jays continued squandering the lead in generous fashion. Three runs in each of the fourth and fifth frames gave the Rangers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Apologists will suggest the Guerrero error led to just a pair of runs and the Jays did plenty afterwards to gift this one away. Bassitt lasted just 3.2 innings and allowed three runs on seven hits for a second consecutive substandard start.
By then, the Rangers had seized control and the Jays were on their way to another maddening defeat.
The way the team is dropping games has to be maddening for Schneider, who had suffered through his team scoring just nine runs in its previous four games before finally getting some traction.
This is a group, remember, that had obsessively vowed to excel in clean baseball, avoiding the maddening mistakes that fritter away games. While Guerrero is not alone among the guilty, he also ran into an out on the bases in the first, ending an inning that had potential.
And now it’s on to Miami to face a Marlins team that has won four in a row and have jumped out to a June record of 12-4.
Overall, the Jays are now 39-34, just two games worst than they were through 73 games last season. Given the expectations to be much closer to AL East contention than still just on the outside of the AL wild-card race, it sure feels a lot worse, doesn’t it?
GAME ON
What a welcome to the major leagues for Spencer Horwitz, who was batting eighth as DH and singled in his first big league at bat, drove in a run (via a groundout) in his second and walked and scored in his third at bat and earned another free pass in his fourth. Good on the former 24th-round draft pick … A clutch double from Bo Bichette in the second not only drove in a pair of runs but marked the fifth consecutive game the Jays shortstop recorded a two-bagger … The Jays lost Alejandro Kirk in the second inning after the catcher took a 96 mph fastball off his left hand. The team announced that early X-rays were negative for a fracture and that Kirk had suffered a laceration and bruise. With that in mind, don’t be surprised if Tyler Heineman reports to Miami in time for Monday’s game as a fallback.
