Schneider's desperate attempt to fire up the club gets little results in Blue Jays loss

Frustrations are at a fever pitch surrounding the Toronto Blue Jays. At 4-7, mired in a six game losing streak, the Blue Jays never envisioned being in rut like this, especially so early in the year. While the starting pitching, injured as it is, is still holding up their end of the bargain, the rest of the team simply has not.

They aren't hitting well, the bullpen continues to be a soft spot, and the defense isn't playing consistently to it's Gold Glove caliber that everyone is accustomed to. So when Blue Jays' ace Kevin Gausman was called for a balk during their Tuesday evening (Apr. 7) contest against the LA Dodgers, it gave manager John Schneider as good of an excuse as any to try and light a fire under his group.

Schneider went off on home plate umpire Dan Merzel who arbitrarily decided that Gausman in that one instance was not legally coming to a full pause. Schneider's ejection got the crowd fired up and it looked like it might've started to ignite something in the team. Unfortunately, that flame was short lived.

Blue Jays extend losing streak to six games as John Schneider looks for different ways to get his team going

The ejection happened in the top of the fifth, and with the team down 3-0, the Blue Jays finally scored a run in the bottom of the sixth. Andrés Giménez singled, was moved to second on a fielders choice by Brandon Valenzuela, then scored on George Springer's RBI double. The Blue Jays then had the tying run on base when Daulton Varsho walked. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded into a force out, and Jesús Sánchez rolled over a ball to end the inning. The Blue Jays went 1-for-3 with a runner in scoring position that inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, with the score 3-1, they rallied again. Kazuma Okamoto opened the inning with a double. Ernie Clement singled on a bunt up the third base line. Davis Schneider walked, giving Toronto the bases loaded and nobody out. But this time Giménez flied out and couldn't advance the runner. Valenzuela struck out and Springer flied out. They went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base in what ended in a 4-1 loss.

Yes, the Blue Jays have been extremely hurt by the injuries they've sustained early in the season. But they still have a team full of capable players that need to come through and get the job done. Watching Guerrero ground out in the sixth swinging at a first pitch slider at the bottom of the zone is maddening. Watching three guys come up short with the bases loaded is infuriating. The Blue Jays are 1-for-17 with the bases loaded this season. But the worst part is, they seemingly are only giving themselves once chance every game to score.

They are usually going three-up-three-down, for six or seven innings, and then in two of the innings they start to put pressure on the opposition, the threat is neutralized with relative ease. It's no wonder Schneider blew a fuse during the game. He knows these players are better than this. The players know they are better than this. But nothing is working right now.

The saving grace is, it is incredibly early in the year. They have played 6.2% of their total schedule and while reinforcements seem a while away still, this group is very capable of stringing together a stretch that looks way better than an 0-for-6 landslide.