Listless Blue Jays fall to the worst team in baseball in Oakland
The Blue Jays, in desperate need of a soft spot in the schedule to the right their ship, ought to have found it on Monday night.
They played the club with the worst record and offensive performance in all of baseball, and their ace, Alek Manoah, was on the mound.
The Blue Jays stumbled to the midway mark of the season with a fourth straight loss when they lost 5-1 to the Athletics here on the U.S. holiday, failing to pick up their spirits.
Manoah only lasted 5.2 innings while giving up a season-high five runs, so he was clearly not at his best. The left-handed A's starter Cole Irvin retired the first 11 hitters he saw and gave up just one run.
The Jays' current record of 44-37 puts them on track for just 88 victories, down three games from their 91-win campaign in 2021.
The A's pounced all over Manoah in the first inning, putting him in trouble straight away. Matt Chapman's old colleagues weren't exactly welcoming on his return to Oakland in that three-run first inning.
The Jays' current losing run of four games is their second-longest of the year. Fortunately, the game was over in just 2:27, making it one of the quickest of the year.
The Jays struggled at the plate from a baseball standpoint, and the manager noticed some trepidation in his team's approach.
The previous few, three, or four games, it looks like we've been trying too hard, Montoyo stated. So perhaps we can resume our strong bat-swinging.