John Schneider's attempt to soften the blow of Blue Jays-Royals ending probably fell on deaf ears

John Schneider chose his words carefully after Tuesday's game. He avoided piling on, and tried to explain Nathan Lukes' mistake in the bottom of the ninth of the Toronto Blue Jays' 5-3 loss to the Kanasas City Royals. The only issue is that most fans had already processed the moment and made up their minds about Lukes getting tagged out at second base to end the game.

“I think there you just want to be careful and get the tying run up there, with the middle of the order coming,” Schneider told reporters. “I haven’t talked to Lukey yet. He knows that, if it’s going to be that close, I think just put the brakes on.”

Lukes and the Blue Jays were trying to rally from a 5-1 deficit when the 32-year-old came through at the plate, sending a line drive to left-center field, scoring to runs to make it 5-3. Unfortunately, the game ended when Lukes tried to stretch his luck and got thrown out at second base.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was waiting on deck. They had Royals reliever Steven Cruz on the ropes. They had all of the momentum, and then it evaporated with one throw to cut down Lukes at second. With the Blue Jays beginning a stretch of playing 30 straight games against teams at or below .500, this was not the way they had envisioned the outcome. This late into the season, Schneider should have his team paying attention to the little things, but it was a lack of execution on the little things all night that did them in.

For most of the night, the Blue Jays’ offense was quiet again. Toronto had chances, but the breakthrough never came until the ninth inning. They were 1-for-11 with Runners in Scoring Position, leaving eight men on base. There was a throwing error made by Guerrero that led to a Royals run in the middle innings. They made an early, questionable ABS challenge that went against them. They had a lack of a game plan when they came up in big moments at the plate.

“Everything gets magnified when you’re not scoring, then you get a little over-anxious, I think, when you’re trying to make something happen,” Schneider said. That is what made Schneider’s postgame explanation feel somewhat hollow. For a large part, this is a roster made up of guys who played on the biggest stage a year ago, but right now, they are playing like a team that is so desperate and lack the ability to come through when it's all on the line.

Blue Jays season long comeback attempt in danger of slipping away

Losses like the one on Tuesday can't become the norm for the Blue Jays. At this point of the year, they haven't given themselves enough breathing room to let a couple of games get away from them. Sure, they are playing better baseball this month than they have all season, but they are running out of games to actually play.

They enter Wednesday's action three games back of the final Wild Card spot and have to jump over five other teams while they are still five games under .500. They have to start acting like a team that is trying to defend it's American League championship, instead of a team that is just happy to be playing meaningful baseball at this time of the season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow