Blue Jays’ season-long problems showed up all at once in latest loss to Cubs

The Toronto Blue Jays may only be 3.5 games out of a Wild Card playoff spot, but let's be honest here, they've rarely showed any glimpses that they deserve to be a playoff team this season.

They've been playing better as of late, they are 6-4 in their last ten games and haven't lost back to back games since a four-game losing streak Jul. 19-22. But after Thursday's 3-2, 11 inning loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field, they sit eight games below .500 at 54-62 and the results of that game perfectly encapsulate everything that has gone wrong for the Blue Jays this season.

Let's start with the offense. The Blue Jays scored two runs over 11 innings, and one of them was basically gifted to them on a disengagement violation in the top of the first inning. The only "real" run the Blue Jays scored was when Alejandro Kirk singled home Andrés Giménez in the top of the seventh, to put the Blue Jays ahead 2-0.

They failed to cash in the ghost runner in both the top of the 10th and 11th innings and went 1-for-19 overall in the game, leaving 13 men on base. The middle of the order was anemic all day with George Springer, Nathan Lukes and Ernie Clement going a combined 2-for-15, with both hits courtesy of Clement, and they were hitting 4-5-6 in the order (respectively) with Kirk hitting third, and doing his job going 4-for-5 on the afternoon. This continues an ugly trend of the Blue Jays hitting .239 with a .695 OPS with runners in scoring position this season.

Kirk's offense wasn't the only part of Toronto's battery that did it's job. The Blue Jays left starter Dylan Cease hanging. He went seven innings, struck out 10 and allowed just two hits, while walking one. That moves Cease to thirty six consecutive innings on the road in which he has not allowed a run to cross the plate.

Cease is receiving a career low 2.64 runs scored per nine innings this season, meaning he can't allow more than three runs or his team is likely to lose. Even with those incredibly difficult odds stacked against him, he's posted a 2.28 ERA through 21 starts, and has allowed just 47 runs (32 earned) in 126.1 innings.

Cease handed the ball over to Braydon Fisher in the eighth inning and he worked a clean three up, three down frame. Louis Varland entered the game in the ninth and had one of the worst performances of his season. He allowed a two run home run to Alex Bregman on a 1-2 count with two outs. While the bullpen has been mostly a bright spot for Toronto this season, the failures of former closer Jeff Hoffman at the beginning of the year certainly dug the Blue Jays in an early hole.

There's also the irony in the fact that Varland has basically been lights out since he took over the closers role from Hoffman. However, with Hoffman gone in a trade at the deadline, there's no real back up plan as Varland is "the guy" now who is going to be asked to finish games.

Except he wasn't able to finish this one. It's the 13th blown save of the season for Toronto, which is only the seventh lowest mark in the league. Houston tops the league with the Astros only blowing seven saves and Washington the worst in baseball with 30 blown saves by the Nationals bullpen. Still, with 13 blown saves, if the Blue Jays had managed to cut that in half, maybe they are much closer to .500 at this time of the year.

Finally, it was the see-saw defense of the Blue Jays that lurked it's way into having a direct outcome on this game. The Blue Jays made two incredible plays in extra innings to prevent the Cubs from winning the game. First it was an amazing leaping grab by Clement behind second base that sent the game to the 11th. The Blue Jays' second baseman robbed Carson Kelly of a single by snagging a line drive that was on the shortstop side of second base.

There were runners on second and third at the time with two outs and Clements catch saved the game. Kelly was then on second base to begin the bottom of the 11th and Pete Crow-Armstrong singled to center field. Myles Straw came up with the ball and threw a laser to home plate, where Brandon Valenzuela (who pinch ran for Kirk earlier in the game), applied the tag to get Kelly out, trying to go second to home for the first out.

It was another incredible play that prevented the winning run, although Crow-Armstrong moved up to second on the play giving the Cubs another potential winning run in scoring position. And that proved to be the Blue Jays demise as the Blue Jays walked Seiya Suzuki to get a potential double play, but instead PCA stole third and on the throw down, he was able to also come scampering home as Valenzuela's throw was off line and Josh Smith couldn't quite get his glove on it.

Valenzuela was charged with an error, the 75th error the Blue Jays have committed this season, fourth most in the majors. Say what you will about fielding statistics, but the Blue Jays .982 fielding percentage ranks 27th in the league.

Blue Jays need to clean up the fundamentals over the final two months

Defensive errors, leaving pitches over the middle, and not cashing in runners in scoring position with less than two outs. Those will help you lose ball games quickly. The Blue Jays have been doing a lot of those things over the course of the season and they did ALL of those things over the course of their 3-2 loss to the Cubs on Thursday.

A lot of fans are looking at the standings and suggesting "if they can go on a run, there's a chance." Yes, there will always be a chance until the math doesn't work any more. But for the most part the Blue Jays have done everything they can to realistically take themselves out of the equation.

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