Blue Jays Game Blast – Game 57 – The Inexcusably Late Edition

May 27, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind (26) doubles in the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY SportsComing into this series in San Diego, I held out a lot of optimism that the Toronto Blue Jays would use this as a starting point, somewhere to finally get this team moving. After two bitter losses, the optimism is dampened quite a bit, but still there, just waiting for the carrot to be dangled one more time.

Saturday’s game was another heartbreaking defeat, where an uncharacteristic error by a Gold Glove winning pitcher essentially became the difference between win or lose. Toronto dropped the contest 4-3 and now sit 10.5 games out of first place in the American League East and 8.5 games out of a playoff spot. Now rounding the corner into June, that is a huge step to have to take. It may not be insurmountable, but its going to take an incredible run by a squad that has yet to register a significant winning streak.

That has to start tonight.

To do that, this team will have to rally behind Ramon Ortiz, hoping that the hallowed grounds of Petco Park are the perfect place to deploy their 40-year-old waiver wizard. In 3 starts, Ortiz has been acceptable, registering a 3.77 but doing so with only a 1.9 K/9 ratio. The Blue Jays will hope that he can continue to get the most out of weak swings and deception.

On the other side of the diamond, Ortiz will be opposed by Edinson Volquez. Volquez was a solid addition by San Diego in 2012, but has struggled a bit this season, currently holding a 4-5 record and a 5.20 ERA. He is allowing a .267 batting average against through his 11 starts, but the Blue Jays will want to get to him early. That means that someone not names Adam Lind or Edwin Encarnacion are going to have to show up offensively tonight and help apply pressure on the right-hander.

Speaking of offenses, here are the line-ups for tonight’s contest.

Blue Jays Line-up:

Padres Line-up:

How about one more giant “Let’s Go Blue Jays” for old time’s sake?!

Elsewhere around the Web:

– One of our fellow FanSided sites published an article about five cities that don’t deserve their professional sports teams. One of those team…The Toronto Blue Jays. As the author states, “they have been terribly unsupported for a long time”. In chatting with the site via Twitter, I’ve come to find out that the basis of his argument seems to be empty seats at Rogers Centre, but he also doesn’t consider the fact that the park seats 56,000. So are the Blue Jays terribly unsupported? I think we know the answer to that is a resounding “NO!”.

Tell us below why you think the city of Toronto and Canada as a whole deserves the Blue Jays and how you help support your favorite team, and we’ll utilize that in our official rebuttal post!