{"id":108860,"date":"2025-08-31T01:37:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/108860\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T01:37:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:37:03","slug":"blue-jays-facing-tests-on-multiple-fronts-after-another-loss-to-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/108860\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays facing tests on multiple fronts after another loss to Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 John Schneider is trying to curse less often in public, so he declined to share what ran through his mind Friday night, when Daulton Varsho<\/a> hopped around in agony after being struck on the right pinky by a 96.9 m.p.h. Aaron Ashby sinker. Suffice to say, it wasn\u2019t as genteel as the update the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> manager delivered Saturday on his centre-fielder, who was \u201cfeeling\u00a0a little better, day-to-day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGlad we dodged that bullet,\u201d Schneider added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The close call was the second of the week for the Blue Jays, as Ernie Clement<\/a> suffered a small hairline fracture at the base of his left middle finger after being hit Monday by Joe Ryan, but not enough damage to land him on the injured list. Still, the incidents underline how quickly late-season attrition can pile up and erode depth.<\/p>\n

All of which makes the days ahead of the Sept. 1 expansion of rosters a really interesting time for contending clubs, both on and off the field, as a small handful of veterans on teams out of the race shake loose. As long as such players are with a new organization before Sunday ends, they\u2019re eligible for the post-season, so the recently released likes of Carlos Santana and Walker Buehler, or on-waivers Isiah Kiner-Falefa, for example, offer up intriguing final opportunities to further pad depth.<\/p>\n

For a Blue Jays team facing tests on multiple fronts \u2013 amplified by Saturday\u2019s 4-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, decided when closer Jeff Hoffman allowed homers by Jackson Chourio and Christian Yelich to open the ninth and an RBI double to Isaac Collins later in the frame \u2013 profile must meet need.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s no clear path to get what they probably need most right now \u2013 some breathing room for their relievers to work through their current rough patch, Hoffman perhaps front and centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone on the team, not just the players, the staff, everyone has to look in the mirror and say, \u2018OK, I’ve got to fix this, I\u2019ve got to do a little bit of a better job,\u2019\u201d said Schneider. \u201cThe runway may be tight. It may be one-run games. You’ve got to go out and execute. This is the big leagues. There’s a standard and you have to move on to tomorrow. If there’s one thing this team is good at, it’s moving on to the next thing and no better guy on the mound than Max (Scherzer) to do it (Sunday). If they’re tight games, we’ve got to go out and we’ve got to execute. If we don’t do that, we’re not going to get to where we want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Gausman certainly did his part Saturday over seven dominant innings, allowing only one earned run while striking out eight as he duelled with Quinn Priester. But the offence only managed to scratch out one run for him \u2013 on a\u00a0Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sacrifice fly in the sixth that opened the scoring \u2013 and that was erased in the seventh, when a strange Sal Frelick chopper carried Gausman into the first-base line where he got the out but couldn\u2019t make a throw home to prevent Christian Yelich from scoring to tie the game 1-1.<\/p>\n

The Brewers bullpen kept it there until the ninth, when Hoffman gave up the solo shots to open the inning and was pulled with two outs after Collins\u2019 double made it 4-1. A sellout crowd of 41,424 booed as he left the field, marking a second straight day the bullpen allowed a game to unravel, and a third time on a now 2-3 homestand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s understandable,\u201d Hoffman said of the booing. \u201cThat’s what happens when you’re on a good team. People expect you to win every night. That’s good that they’re booing. I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoffman has now allowed eight runs over his past four outings during the last week, with two blown saves and two losses, including Saturday. He pointed to pitch selection and poor execution, suggested he needs to pitch inside more and added that \u201cmy stuff obviously has to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStuff has not been great and when the stuff’s not great and the execution is not great, that’s when you get hit,\u201d he explained, adding that he shook his head on the mound out of \u201cdisappointment, honestly, just wanting to be better. \u2026 We’ve got a lot of guys that are trying real hard in there, you don’t want to be the guy that kind of ruins it for everybody for the night. Tomorrow’s a new day. Come back out, execute, and just get back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider, who forcefully backed Hoffman after previous blips, was more equivocal when asked about how he planned to handle the closer\u2019s role after this one, noting that \u201cwe’re in the business of trying to win, so you’ve got to be aware of what’s happening in real time, for sure,\u201d while later adding that \u201cthe game ended 15 minutes ago, I’m not going to make any decisions right now on who pitches where.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHoff’s got 29 saves. He’s shown that he can do it,\u201d Schneider continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure out, not just him, but multiple guys in the ‘pen in terms of strike throwing, in terms of locating. But we’re going to try to make the best decision for everyone, to try to win every single night.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 5-6 over their last 11 games, the Blue Jays (78-58) have not done that, in the process allowing the New York Yankees (75-60), who faced the Chicago White Sox later Saturday, and the Boston Red Sox (75-62), who lost 10-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, to whittle down their lead atop the AL East.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll try to salvage the series finale against the powerhouse Brewers (85-52) on Sunday, when Scherzer starts against Brandon Woodruff, while in the background, they and the other contenders will survey the landscape and weigh any possible external adds before rosters expand Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clement, who didn\u2019t start for a third straight game, came on as a pinch-hitter in the eighth, driving a ball at 99.5 m.p.h. to centre that Chourio chased down, perhaps easing some concerns about how the hand may limit him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assuming he\u2019s able to return to the lineup soon \u2013 Schneider said \u201cwe\u2019ll see,\u201d when asked if Sunday was a possibility \u2013 someone like Kiner-Falefa is a tougher fit, with fewer pathways to playing time. But with Leo Jimenez and Michael Stefanic the top infield depth options at triple-A Buffalo, trying to add him makes more sense if there are any doubts about Clement.<\/p>\n

With Varsho, meanwhile, the Blue Jays should still be well covered in the outfield if his pinky ends up worse than expected, especially with Anthony Santander finally on a progression that could get him back on the roster in a couple of weeks. And with him possibly on the horizon, that makes fitting someone like Santana on the roster all the more difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That being said, today\u2019s surplus can easily turn into tomorrow\u2019s deficit, and while no team can plan for every scenario, each piece of depth offers another possible layer of coverage for whatever may arise.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 John Schneider is trying to curse less often in public, so he declined to share what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-108860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}