Way back in 1983, the upstart Blue Jays found themselves within a game and a half of first place in late August.
Having finished last in the division the year before (and every other season in franchise history), the plucky young club led by Dave Stieb, Willie Upshaw and Lloyd Moseby was part of a pennant race nobody expected them to be in until the bullpen got in the way.
Over a five-day span in late August, the Jays were walked off four times, ending their playoff dreams. Three weeks later, they were 11 1/2 games out of first place.
This isn’t that, but boy does it feel familiar.
Playing the role of Joey McLaughlin for the 2025 Jays is closer Jeff Hoffman, who came into a tie game in the ninth inning Saturday at the Rogers Centre and immediately gave up home runs on back-to-back pitches to Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio 鈥 in his first game back after missing a month with a hamstring injury聽鈥 and Christian Yelich.
Go-ahead 9th-inning bomb in his first game off the IL 鈥硷笍
鈥 Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers)
The Jays couldn’t answer in the bottom of the ninth and fell 4-1 to the best-in-MLB Brewers for their third loss in four games.
Hoffman was tagged with his sixth loss of the year. The home runs were the 13th and 14th he’s allowed this season; no big-league reliever has given up more.
“My stuff obviously has to get better,” said Hoffman, facing the media after Saturday’s outing.聽“Stuff has kind of not been great, and when the stuff’s not great and the execution’s not great that’s when you get hit.”
For the second time in three outings聽鈥斅with a Wednesday night save in between聽鈥 Hoffman was booed off the field by the sellout crowd.
“Everybody wants to win,”聽said Hoffman, who ranks third in the American League with 29 saves.聽“That’s a Blue Jays fan, so that’s understandable. That’s what happens when you’re on a good team. People expect you to win every night. That’s good that they’re booing, I like that.”
The Blue Jays are getting set for a three-game series against the MLB’s best Milwaukee Brewers,
The first-year closer says he remains confident and looks forward to getting the ball again, perhaps as soon as the series finale Sunday, though he did say about his recent struggles聽鈥 eight runs allowed over his last four outings聽鈥 that “it all feels terrible, so the best thing we can do is get back to the grindstone and make the adjustments we feel like we need to make.”
What adjustments would those be?
“Stuff that you guys wouldn’t understand,” Hoffman said. “So I’ll just keep it to myself.”
The problem doesn’t come with an easy solution, since Hoffman is far from the only Jays reliever scuffling. Louis Varland has been scored upon in each of his last six outings. Brendon Little has walked five in his last six appearances, covering just 4 2/3 innings. Yariel Rodr铆guez, who has come in to bail out Hoffman twice this past week, including Saturday, has a 7.71 ERA in August.
Only Seranthony Dom铆nguez, who threw a shutout eighth Saturday to give him nine straight appearances without allowing an earned run, is pitching well among the late-inning, high-leverage crew, but elevating him to the closer role聽鈥 in which he spent a month last season for the Baltimore Orioles聽鈥斅爓ould still require Hoffman to pitch in big spots late in games.
Manager John Schneider, for the first time this season, did not say Hoffman is unequivocally his ninth-inning guy.
“The game ended 15 minutes ago, I’m not going to make any decisions right now on who pitches where,” Schneider said in the wake of the loss. “We’re going to continue to rely on (Hoffman), on Louis, on Little, on Yariel, on Seranthony, on everyone. However that takes shape, we’re going to just try to do whatever we can to win every night.”
The loss obscured聽a spectacular outing by Kevin Gausman, who allowed just one run on four hits over seven dominant innings, striking out eight without a walk. The Brewers’ Quinn Priester was almost as good, but the Jays got to him in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., taking advantage of Brewers second baseman Brice Turang throwing away a double-play ball earlier in the inning.
Milwaukee tied it right up as Yelich led off the seventh with a double and came around to score on two ground-ball outs, setting the stage for the ninth-inning drama.
The Boston Red Sox released Walker Buehler recently and with no August trades allowed, the right-hander could be an intriguing addition before the Sept. 1 deadline for playoff eligibility.聽Buehler got the save for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the final game of the World Series last year and finished the post-season on a 13-inning scoreless streak, so despite his troubles in the Red Sox starting rotation, he could be worth a “what do we have to lose” look.
As well, the Pittsburgh Pirates placed聽Isiah Kiner-Falefa聽on waivers. The former Blue Jay would be a perfect fit as a utility infielder, especially with Ernie Clement not having started a game since Tuesday because of a hairline fracture in his left hand.
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