Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Shane Bieber gave up a home run on the first pitch he threw on Sunday, as his team dropped its sixth game in a row.John E. Sokolowski/Reuters
The Blue Jays bumbled their way to a season-tying sixth consecutive defeat on Sunday as they fell to the Texas Rangers, 3-2.
This time they lost on a two-out wild pitch by Louis Varland in the top of the ninth inning. This was no ordinary wild pitch. It bounced to the left of home plate, flew up in the air, deflected off the umpire, and ricocheted in foul territory in front of the visiting dugout.
It was enough of an oddity to allow pinch-runner Jarred Kelenic to score rather easily from second base to break a 2-2 tie. Toronto went down in order in the bottom half of the inning.
The Blue Jays, who trailed from the first pitch of the game, had tied it in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run home run by Nathan Lukes.
The Blue Jays were swept in four games by Texas. The last time that happened was in 2023, also at the hands of the Rangers.
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The contest ended with Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo making a leaping catch against the wall on a fly ball by Alejandro Kirk.
Varland entered the game with an 0.82 earned run average and ended it at 1.00. He was tagged with the loss and is now 3-3.
“We’ve been through real high points and low points but that’s the last thing you expect when you bring Louis into a game,” manager John Schneider said.
After the ball caromed off home plate umpire Alan Porter, Kirk lost track of it.
Toronto Blue Jays infielder Andrés Giménez, left, was 1-2 on Sunday's loss to the Texans.Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press
“It’s a terrible feeling when you don’t know where it is,” Schneider, a catcher throughout his minor-league career, said.
Toronto fell behind when Joc Pederson launched Shane Bieber’s first pitch 388-feet into the stands in right field. The right-hander settled down after that and left after 5 1/3rd innings. In only his second start of the season due to injury, he was charged with two runs, allowed five hits, walked four and struck out four.
The Blue Jays were unable to solve Texas starter Kumar Rocker, who entered the outing with a 2-6 record. Rocker shut them out on four hits over six innings with one walk and five punch-outs.
He is a former first-round pick of the New York Mets who in 2019 threw a no-hitter with 19 strikeouts for Vanderbilt in an NCAA Div. 1 regional tournament. He was later chosen the most outstanding player of the College World Series when the Commodores won the national championship.
Texas added a second run on a single by Elias Diaz off Adam Macko after Bieber was removed.
As they so often have, Toronto had chances to score earlier but did not. It had runners on first and third in the first inning with one out but Kazuma Okamoto grounded into a fielder’s choice with the runner thrown out at home and Daulton Varsho struck out.
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After back to back errors in the fifth inning the Blue Jays had runners on second and third with two outs but Lukes, the hottest hitter on the club right now, struck out.
Andrés Giménez struck out to lead off the bottom of the eighth but George Springer followed with a single and Lukes launched a pitch off Cole Winn 404 feet.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-4 as his average fell to .268. He has just four home runs and 34 runs batted in and his last long ball came against the Red Sox on June 18. The most recent one before that occurred on May 17 versus the Tigers.
“We are not getting any offence going early in games,” Schneider said. “That’s the main thing. Probably every one of our players is better than they have been so far.”
Toronto hopes to return to the right path on Monday when Bo Bichette makes his return to Rogers Centre as the New York Mets come to town. Neither team has anything to celebrate at this point.
The Blue Jays are six games below .500 and the Mets just fired their manager.
“It will be nice to see Bo but as good as he was for us here, I’m diving into the Blue Jays a lot more than saying hi to him,” Schneider said.