The Blue Jays losing four straight gameswith the team they had on the field post-trade deadline in 2015 was unfathomable.
With their record at 50-51 when Alex Anthopoulos pulled the trigger on acquiring Troy Tulowitzki in late July, the Jays then went 43-18, never losing even more than two in a row.
Their last three-game losing streak was July 8-10, 2015. Their last four-game losing streak was a five-gamer from May 13-17, 2015, which included a four-game sweep against the Astros. Repeat: the last four-game losing streak was 11 months ago.
And now, six games into the 2016 season, the Blue Jays have lost four in a row.
It started with the Bautista slide in the ninth inning of the third game oon Tuesday and the slide hasn’t stopped. I lay some blame on John Gibbons for the loss in the series finale in Tampa — it was his decision to have the team’s seventh-best reliever, Arnold Leon, on the mound with a one-run lead and two runners on in the eighth inning. Every win is important (doesn’t matter if it’s early April) and the eighth inning with a lead is why you have Drew Storen, Brett Cecil, Roberto Osuna. Workload shmerkload. Gibby wears that one.
Arnold Leon was back out working the sixth and seventh innings on Saturday with the Jays trailing 7-4 against the BoSox. That’s the spot for him. The lineup can wear some of the responsibility, too — 26 runs in the first six games, so those bats can heat up anytime now.
The real disappointment in dropping the first two games at home and the first four-game skid since last May is that it’s opportunity missed to capitalize on some carryover excitement from 2015. Buzz kill. There are thousands of people walking around downtown in Blue Jays gear, but there’s not much revelry going on. Soon, there will be other things that sports fans can become engaged with.
In a few weeks, the Raptors will be winning a playoff round or two or three and Jurassic Park will take over Maple Leaf Square. And if the Maple Leafs win the NHL draft lottery and the right to select Auston Matthews later this month, Leafs Nation will regain some of its thunder.
When the Blue Jays are winning, the excitement is felt everywhere. When there’s a four-game losing streak, it just feels like 2013.
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