Blue Jays bats fall short, drop series to White Sox

The Blue Jays’ bats were not enough to tame Chris Sale as Toronto fell 5-2 on Saturday afternoon to the Chicago White Sox, falling 2-1 in the weekend series.

Toronto’s offence did briefly to life in the eighth inning when Troy Tulowitzki sent a solo home run off the top of the left-field wall. Junior Lake soon followed up with his first home run as a member of the Blue Jays, a hard-hit solo shot to right-centre field. Outside of the deep flies, however, the Jays managed just three hits.

Marcus Stroman entered play with a 7.59 ERA over his past seven starts, but didn’t do much to shake his recent struggles by allowing four earned runs over five innings on seven hits and four walks.

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The right-hander flew out of the gates, needing just seven pitches to retire the side in the first inning. Following a pair of defensive miscues in the third, Adam Eaton put on the squeeze bunt to score Tyler Saladino from third as Stroman’s throw home was off target. A Melky Cabrera RBI single put the Blue Jays down 2-0.

Tim Anderson put the White Sox ahead 3-0 in the fifth with his second home run in as many days to left field before a wild pitch from Stroman increased the lead to four.

Joe Biagini was first out of the bullpen for Toronto and looked very strong over two innings of work. His only base runner reached on a swinging third strike on a breaking ball that got away from Russell Martin. Bo Schultz made his 2016 debut to pitch the eighth, but allowed a solo home run to J.B. Shuck after back-to-back strikeouts.

Prior to today’s game, the Blue Jays played reliever Gavin Floyd on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury suffered in Saturday’s game. Schultz, whose season was delayed as he recovered from an offseason hip procedure, was recalled to take his place on the 25-man roster.