Slumping Blue Jays swept by White Sox as bats falter, injuries mount

CHICAGO – A sweep at the hands of the White Sox, paired with the loss of Alejandro Kirk, made for a miserable weekend for the Blue Jays, who return to Toronto 4-5 despite one of the easiest schedules possible.

Offensively, the Blue Jays looked lost most of the weekend, scoring a total of seven runs in three games. They’ve now lost five of their last six games on the way to series losses against the Rockies and White Sox.

As ugly as it’s been lately, there’s all kinds of time remaining for the Blue Jays to turn this around. There’s a difference between a genuinely bad team and a team playing badly, of course.

But with Addison Barger now dealing with ankle pain and a matchup with the Dodgers on the horizon, life isn’t about to get any easier for the Blue Jays. Turning an opportunity against a last-place team into a sweep at the hands of the White Sox hurts.

“If you’re not playing your baseball, good things usually don’t happen,” said manager John Schneider. “We’ve got to start playing in sync. Today we were fighting an uphill battle offensively, which is uncharacteristic out of us.” 

With just six hits Sunday afternoon, the Blue Jays were unable to find answers against Davis Martin and the White Sox bullpen. 

“The offence will get clicking,” Schneider said. “We’re nine games in.”

The lone offensive highlight came in the third inning when catcher Brandon Valenzuela, making his first career big-league start in place of Kirk, lined a pitch to right field for his first-ever hit.

“He’s got a bright future,” Schneider said. “It’s nice to get the first hit out of the way. I’m happy for him.”

As for Barger, he aggravated both ankles while running out a ground ball in the third inning. 

“He stepped a little bit weird with both of them,” Schneider said. “Hopefully it’s just a day or two, or maybe not even a day.”

Credit starter Eric Lauer for trying to gut through a bout with the flu to pitch a few innings, but his velocity was down and he wasn’t nearly as effective as he was in his season debut against the Athletics last weekend. The left-hander walked three without striking anyone out before leaving the game in the third.

He connected to an IV before the start to help with hydration and was able to drink a smoothie to gain some strength before the game, but he was far from full strength.

“It was probably the worst (flu) I’ve ever had,” Lauer said. “It’s just been a grind trying to eat.”

“I’ve been able to drink my calories more than anything. The hard part’s keeping them down.”

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Since Lauer was “basically bedridden for the last four days,” it wasn’t a guarantee he’d be able to make the start at all, but he wanted to show up for his teammates, especially after a week in which fellow starter Cody Ponce was placed on the injured list.

“(Staying on the sidelines) was definitely a thought,” he said. “But the way things had been going, we needed some innings and I felt like I was good enough.”

Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, Lauer wasn’t alone in dealing with flu-like symptoms.

“There’s a few guys that were feeling it, so hydrate up and get back on the horse,” Schneider said.

The Blue Jays did shuffle their bullpen before the game, optioning both Brendon Little and Lazaro Estrada while adding lefty Joe Mantiply and right-hander Austin Voth to take their places.

A stint in Buffalo should allow Little to work on some of the issues that led to an ERA of 24.55 and an opponents’ on-base percentage north of .500. There’s intriguing stuff there, but it just wasn’t working and Mantiply now joins Mason Fluharty as a lefty relief option.

As for Voth, he’s here to provide length, an assignment that began Sunday with 2.2 respectable innings during which he allowed one earned run on three hits. Mantiply also debuted, striking out three in his 1.1 innings.

“Joe did a really good job,” Schneider said. “He’s been around and knows what he’s doing. I liked what I saw.”

After a flight home to Toronto, Max Scherzer will pitch opposite Justin Wrobleski Monday when the Blue Jays open their series against the Dodgers.

“Baseball’s funny. It takes a while to get into your groove,” Schneider said. “We’ve got to find a way on the bird back to Toronto to flush this. This is not our brand of baseball and hopefully some good vibes at home and some crowd support and a little bit of energy kicks us into gear.”

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