Well, that sucked.
The Jays could only put together 3 singles and were retired in order in 5 of the 9 innings in their series opener against the Mets. After winning 3 straight out of the all-star break, they have erased the progress they made by losing 3 straight.
Let’s break it down.
Offence? Never heard of it
The Jays were shut out for the first time since April 18th against the Royals on Friday night, and never really even threatened to put any runs on the board.
They only had 3 singles and had just one at-bat with runners in scoring position, which was in the first inning.
Full credit to Tylor Megill, who had a phenomenal start, but the Blue Jays cannot be putting up these kinds of performances when they are very quickly falling down the wild card standings.
Obviously, this was a one-off, but the Jays need to start putting up better performances against good teams, whether it’s the Mets, Red Sox, or Rays. This isn’t acceptable for a team with playoff aspirations.
Everything else was alright
If you ignore the offence entirely, this was a pretty tidy performance by the Jays pitching and defense tonight.
After allowing a 1st inning 2-run homer to Pete Alonso, Steven Matz quickly settled in and put up his best performance since coming back from the COVID-IL, throwing 5.2 innings, allowing just 2 runs on 4 hits, striking out 5.
Matz was able to do that with an effective fastball and changeup, two pitches he needs to be effective with to pitch well. He was pounding the fastball inside, and used his changeup effectively to keep the Mets hitters off-balance. It may have been in a losing cause, but this was a nice return to Citi Field for Steven Matz.
We also saw Cavan Biggio help him out at third with a gorgeous diving play in the 4th.
He hasn’t been great at third this season, but he’s looked better lately and this was a spectacular play to take away extra bases from James McCann.
After Adam Cimber and Tayler Saucedo put up clean performances, Ryan Borucki gave up a homer to Pete Alonso to extend the Mets lead to 3-0 in the 8th, and that’s where the score would stand.
Some Final Thoughts
The Jays need to turn this around, and they need to turn it around fast.
The next week or so will determine how much this front office wants to commit to this group at the trade deadline, and if they continue to put up performances like this one, Jays fans shouldn’t expect any crazy moves to improve the team.
They need to prove they can hang with the big boys, and the last 3 games haven’t exactly helped their case.
The Jays will send Ross Stripling to the mound tomorrow to try and snap the Jays’ 3-game losing streak.