Blue Jays Plagued by the Long Ball: Begin Season 1-3

It has been a disastrous start to the 2023 season for the Toronto Blue Jays.

‘But didn’t you watch Opening Day?’ you may ask.

Sure, the Blue Jays and St. Louis Cardinals squared off in what was quite possibly the most interesting season opener that either team had ever been a part of.

But they didn’t play well.

Yes, the game did feature five lead changes and a franchise-record 19 hits from the boys in blue – including five from outfielder George Springer alone – but defensively, it was anything but seamless.

On the mound, things went from bad to worse on Friday. That omen carried on through the weekend series in St. Louis, before shifting to Kansas City on Monday evening.

Toronto did pick up the entertaining 10-9 win on Friday afternoon, but it came at a cost to starting pitcher Alek Manoah‘s line, who gave up five runs over just 3 1/3 innings. The bullpen wasn’t much better, but Yimi Garcia picked up the win, while Jordan Romano earned his first save of the season.

Entering the ninth inning down 9-8, the Jays rallied for two runs off Ryan Helsley, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sent offseason acquisition Kevin Kiermaier home on a sacrifice fly. Romano sealed the deal, striking out two of the three batters he faced.

But that was about it for the good news story.

After failing to hit a single home run on Friday while giving up two to the Cardinals, the Jays once again put up a goose egg on Saturday, scoring one total run while stranding a ridiculous 11 runners in scoring position. A costly Matt Chapman throwing error led to three early runs for St. Louis, and Toronto just couldn’t seem to recover.

“It’s unfortunate when those things happen, but I know how good Matt Chapman is, plus Bo and everybody,” starting pitcher Kevin Gausman said post-game. “When anything happens, you’ve just got to keep making your pitches. That’s what they usually say to you, too. ‘Hey, get me another ground ball.’”

The second-year Jays starter was roughed up for eight hits over six total innings pitched, while striking out seven, which was significantly better than Manoah’s numbers from the day prior. The game ended as a 4-1 loss, with the Blue Jays striking out eight times.

Sunday was another game without a home run for Toronto, while St. Louis put an exclamation mark on its series win with four long balls, including two off the bat of designated hitter Nolan Gorman.

Chris Bassitt‘s first start in the baby blue did not go according to plan, as he chucked up three home runs in the first inning, before seeing Gorman go deep off him for a second time just two innings later.

Matt Chapman (3 for 4) and Daulton Varsho (2 for 4) were the only Blue Jays to record multiple hits on the afternoon. Five different Cardinals players had multi-hit outings, leading to 16 total hits for St. Louis. The game ended at a 9-4 deficit for the home club, with Bassitt lasting just 3 and 1/3 innings.

“We’ll go over all of it,” Bassitt added. “Release heights, all of that stuff, see if I was tipping. In any aspect of it, we have a lot of people working on that stuff. We’ll figure out what happened. Sometimes, you’ve just got to say that they’re a really good team and they beat the heck out of me today.”

The Jays left Busch Stadium 1-2 with hopes of finding their game against what was a struggling Kansas City Royals club. With Toronto actually owning a better record than the Royals (0-3) entering Monday’s matchup, the hope was for a quick victory to push aside the shaky opening series.

But unfortunately, that was not the case.

It took until the ninth inning for shortstop Bo Bichette to give the team its first home run of the season, but sadly, it was too little, too late in what is shaping up to be another poor start to a season. Bichette, Chapman and Cavan Biggio each found two hits, but it was nowhere near enough to fend off the Royals, who pounded Toronto with yet another consistent batting effort up and down the lineup.

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This time it was José Berríos who took a beating on the Jays’ mound, giving up eight runs off of nine hits in 5 and 2/3 innings pitched. Zach Pop and Adam Cimber rounded out the game in relief, finishing things off without much more drama. Toronto did manage five runs in the game – including the solo blast from Bichette in the ninth – but the comeback ended there.

“I missed some pitches. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the way that we wanted,” Berríos said following the team’s third loss. “They had a good approach against me and they got the hits. That was on me.”

Combining for a 10.8 ERA over 18 and 1/3 total innings, the four-man rotation of Manoah, Gausman, Bassitt and Berríos has been downright atrocious. They have given up an eye-popping 36 hits while striking out just 17 total batters.

“It’s tough to kind of crawl out of a hole every night,” said manager John Schneider, “but we trust these guys. It’s early. The beginning of the year is tough. It’s everyone’s first time through, so they’re trying to get their footing a little bit. It’s tough for the offense to throw some things out there consistently when you’re down like that. First time through, so hopefully it gets better the second time.”

Yusei Day at The K ⚾️ #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/HL1AwlqZuu

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 4, 2023

With Game 2 of the four-game set with Kansas set to go at 6:40 PM central time at Kaufman Stadium, the Blue Jays will turn to Yusei Kikuchi for what they hope will be a winning recipe. With the way this season has started, the team’s ‘ace’ very well may be left up for discussion. And right now, it’s Kikuchi’s title to claim.