Blue Jays Recap: Early season struggles continue with fifth consecutive loss

The Toronto Blue Jays’ early season struggles continued on Wednesday, with the club dropping their fifth consecutive game 2-0 to the Milwaukee Brewers, lowering their record on the season to 1-7.

The Blue Jays’ anemic offence overshadowed what was nothing short of a stellar pitching performance by Marcus Stroman (1-1), who in nine complete innings surrendered seven hits and two earned runs, while striking out four and walking one.

Josh Donaldson returned to the Blue Jays’ lineup as the team’s DH after sitting out the majority of the previous two games with right calf tightness. He went 0-2 with two walks and a strikeout.

Brewers starting pitcher, Chase Anderson (1-0) peppered the strike zone all evening, limiting the Blue Jays’ struggling bats to only three hits over seven innings, while striking out seven.

Toronto’s only glimmer of offence came in the fourth inning, when Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki each drew walks to load the bases for the struggling Russell Martin, who was subsequently called out on a controversial strike three call, ending the inning and silencing the potential rally.

The Brewers scored their two runs off of an RBI double by Keon Broxton in the second inning and a solo home run by Jonathan Villar in the sixth.

One of the lone highlights for the Blue Jays outside of Stroman’s performance, was an athletic catch by Jose Bautista with two outs in the second innings, robbing Orlando Arcia of extra-bases and saving potentially two runs from scoring.

The Blue Jays will look to rebound tomorrow night when the American League East leading Baltimore Orioles come to town for a four game series, with Francisco Liriano penciled in as the projected starter.

Notes

Through two starts this season, Marcus Stroman’s ERA sits at 1.76.

Russel Martin snapped his 0-20 hitting slump when he registered a two-out double in the seventh inning.

Kendrys Morales impressed in his regular season debut at first base, making a handful of impressive defensive plays.

Coming into tonight’s game, the Blue Jays were averaging 3.3 Runs Per Game, the third lowest total in the American League.

Next: Blue Jays: Good year with bad Aprils