The Toronto Blue Jays dropped Sunday's series finale against the Chicago White Sox by a final score of 3-0. After the shutout loss, Toronto now sits seven games under .500 and is running out of time to turn the season around.
After last year's miraculous run to the World Series, it is safe to say this year's group has fallen well short of expectations. After the game, when speaking with reporters, Blue Jays manager John Schneider did not hold back and pointed to the offense as the primary reason for the team's struggles.
Schneider said he wants to see more from Toronto's offense and that he felt their performance was "frustrating" and they looked "a little flat," per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com.
"We've got to turn it around in a hurry," he continued. "I think there were some at-bats where we were playing defence as opposed to playing offence."
Schneider is not wrong. The team cannot win games if they fail to score, and on Sunday, they wasted a quality start from right-hander Trey Yesavage, who allowed three runs across six innings while striking out nine hitters.
The message has real truth to it. Last year, the offense was the primary reason the team was able to be successful. This year, the pitching has greatly outperformed the offense as many of the team's biggest stars have struggled, including designated hitter George Springer and first basemanVladimir Guerrero Jr.
Across 99 games, Toronto has totaled just 397 runs, which ranks 27th out of 30 teams in the league and is simply not going to cut it if they want to make the playoffs.
