Fastball

Toronto Blue Jays Lead Baseball in This Unfortunate Category After Latest Loss

The Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Oakland Athletics on Friday night thanks to a walk-off home run from JJ Bleday. It was the 41st home run allowed by Blue Jays' relievers, the most in baseball.
Brady Farkas|
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Chad Green (57) throws a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the eighth inning at Rogers Centre on April 9.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Chad Green (57) throws a pitch against the Seattle Mariners during the eighth inning at Rogers Centre on April 9. | Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

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Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Oakland Athletics on Friday night 2-1 after a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by JJ Bleday.

The Blue Jays, a team filled with great expectations entering the season, are now 30-33 on the year and facing a potential sell-off at the trade deadline.

The walk-off home run was allowed by Jays' veteran reliever Chad Green, which marked the 41st home run allowed by Toronto's bullpen this year. That's the most in baseball by a wide margin.

Per @StatsCentre:

Most home runs allowed by relief pitching among all MLB teams this season:
41- #BlueJays (Thanks to losing 2-1 tonight vs the Athletics on a 9th inning walkoff home run given up by Chad Green)
34- Rays
33- White Sox
30- Brewers
30- Giants
28- Angels
27- Cubs
26- Three others tied

This says a few different things about where Toronto is at this year. First, the relief crew hasn't performed as well as expected. The Jays have dealt with injuries to closer Jordan Romano and set-man Erik Swanson, which hasn't helped things, and Swanson was recently sent to Triple-A Buffalo.

Furthermore, the starting rotation hasn't always gone as deep into games as you would like, putting more innings on the bullpen in general.

The Blue Jays are in last place in the American League East entering play on Saturday and they'll take on the A's again on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 4:07 p.m. ET as Kevin Gausman (TOR) pitches against Luis Media (OAK).

Gausman is 4-4 on the year while Medina is 0-0 through one appearance.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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