Blue Jays Notes: Rays Own Them, Vladdy Struggling, Close Losses Piling Up
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Right now, the Toronto Blue Jays are not hovering around the .500 line, but glancing up six games below after the team's latest loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, a ballclub that has been terrorizing the Blue Jays.
The two teams have now faced off twice in the last week, and Tampa Bay has secured both series with a sweep in Florida and a pair of wins to start off the current matchup in Canada. The Blue Jays are simply playing for dignity at this point to avoid two sweeps by the same club in 7 days.
A pair of the L's that the Jays have taken at the hands of the Rays have been by a measly run, including the extra-inning showdown Tuesday night. Not the team's only close game that hasn't gone Toronto's way.
There are 10 games this year decided by one score; the Blue Jays have only won three of them.
It has been quite easy to blame the Blue Jays' struggles directly on the injuries piling up on the team, but there have been so many opportunities for the team to steal some games that they are just not capitalizing on.
To make matters worse, the team's 2x Silver Slugger, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., is not looking like the hitter that they need in order to keep their head above water while key players continue to rehab injuries.
Brutal Rut For Guerrero Jr.
Looking at Guerrero's batting average on the year (.292) it seems hard to believe that he could be struggling that much, or for that long, but it has been a rapid decline for him as he has only five hits this month in more than 40 at-bats, a .122 average.
Unfortunately, his troubles aren't getting better, but seemingly getting worse as he is 0-for-12 in his last three games, and 2-for-24 in their last seven.
The Jays have strikeout machine Dylan Cease on the mound for Wednesday's finale against the Rays, and if anybody can help lead the Jays to victory, it is going to be Cease.
While this is more than an ideal situation for the pitching staff, the hitting lineup needs to be firing on all cylinders to take down the Rays and enter their next road trip on a high note.
They are now 4-7 on the month and more than 10 games behind in the division race. It can't all be made up in a day by any means, but a win with Cease on the mound has to happen.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.