Bad news Blue Jays at it again in yet another sloppy loss to Twins

Twins’ Willi Castro steals second base against Bo Bichette of the Blue Jays in the first inning at Target Field in Minneapolis, Saturday, May 27, 2023.

When it’s going bad not even the booming bat of Bo Bichette can save the Blue Jays.

Not with starting pitcher Chris Bassitt having his worst outing since his early-season debut with his new team.

Not with star centre fielder Kevin Kiermaier out of the game due to injury and the ensuing calamity (more on that, later).

And not with a continued preponderance to self destruct.

A rough and ruinous road trip continued at Target Field down in Minneapolis on Saturday afternoon  with a 9-7 loss to the leaders of the weakling AL Central, the Minnesota Twins.

The Jays (27-26) have now dropped 10 of their past 13 and are 2-4 on this seven game road trip that winds up on Sunday in the Twin Cities where they will need a win to avoid a fourth consecutive series loss.

This is a team badly in need of some positive momentum and instead only seems able to channel bad vibes as they continue to strengthen their hold on last place in the AL East.

Bichette had his team-leading 11th home run and a two-RBI triple in his next at-bat to keep his team in it and then kept an unlikely late rally alive with an RBI single in the ninth. But it wasn’t enough. Again.

Bassitt, the veteran right hander who had been so good of late, lasted just four plus innings allowing nine runs and seven earned runs. Making his 11th start, Bassitt had nowhere near the form of the dude who had a 28-inning scoreless streak stopped in his previous outing.

The Twins hit the Jays hard on what looked liked a brilliant afternoon in the Midwest with four homers, including one from the pride of Quebec City, Edouard Julien, who also added a pair of doubles.

BELT IT OUT

He was only the latest laggardly Jays runner to potentially hurt his team, but boy was Brandon Belt’s out to lead off the sixth inning a bit of ugliness so typical of some of the uncalled for sloppiness of Toronto hitters these days.

After launching a blast that would bounce off the wall in right field, Belt began with a slow jog before seeing what would happen before turning on the Jets (all things being relative for the lead-footed DH).

Sure enough, Belt was thrown out in a close play at second, an unpardonable error for the first out of the inning and worse considering the Twins had just scored three to take a 7-4 lead. It was the 19th out on the bases recorded by the Jays this season (and third in two games), maddeningly unacceptable for a team already on the skids.

CENTRE OF ATTENTION

The prime area of outfield real estate was a bad place to be on Saturday if you were a Blue Jay.

It started early when Kiermaier tweaked his back making a throw, eventually leading to his removal from the game and Varsho shifting from left to take his place.

Now Varsho is a bonafide elite fielder, but here’s where calamity entered the program for a Jays team bent on defeating itself.

We take you to a tie game in the fifth inning when Willi Castro launched a high fly ball off of Bassitt that Varsho tracked to the wall and leapt to make a catch. Instead, the ball bounced off his glove and over the wall for a two-run homer.

The natural reaction is that it was the type of play that Kiermaier makes look routine. In fairness, it was rotten luck for a team that doesn’t have much going its way of late.

The next Twins hitter, Matt Wallner, belted another Bassitt offering to the left of Castro’s bomb and Varsho got a piece of that one as well (on what would have been a spectacular play) and just like that the Twins were up by three with a lead they wouldn’t surrender.

Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho can’t hold on to a ball hit by Twins batter Matt Wallner that resulted in a solo home run during the fifth inning at Target Field in Minneapolis, Saturday, May 27, 2023.

Kiermaier, meanwhile, left the game with what the team reported as right lower back discomfort. The injury is a potentially troubling development for the Jays given Kiermaier’s impact both on offence and defence and the fact the team just lost catcher Danny Jansen to a hamstring injury.

OFFENCE AND OFFENSIVE

You have to wonder where the Jays would be without the prowess of Bichette, who is now on pace for 33 home runs, which would easily surpass his previous career best of 29.

Bichette is so confident at the plate right now and with the added element of power remains one of the most dangerous hitters in the game. The shortstop’s 22 multi-hit games lead all AL hitters.

Want more? Bichette leads the majors in hits (76) and total bases (122). His ninth-inning single drove in his team’s third run of the inning and with one out and runners at the corners the Jays had a shot of tying it.

Instead, an ice-cold Vlad Guerrero Jr. popped out harmlessly and Belt’s miserable afternoon continued as he struck out looking. Rally – and game – over.

AROUND THE BASES

Varsho got some of it back in the ninth with a two-run homer (his eighth) to pull the Jays within three … You want to see explosiveness from a reliever? Twins fireballer Jhoan Duran is your man. The right-hander launched an eighth-inning assault on the Jays, humming a fastball that topped 103 miles per hour and mixing it with a nasty curve at 97 that flummoxed Belt for a strikeout … Some bright lots in the loss: first man up from the bullpen, Anthony Bass, retiring all six Twins hitters he faced and a game-tying homer from Cavan Biggio who took Kiermaier’s spot in the batting order … With Jansen on the IL, Tyler Heineman got the start at catcher and suddenly the Jays depth at the position is in question. Also, one wonders why Varsho, who has some big-league experience behind the plate, didn’t get more reps at backstop during spring training … Up next: Former Twins starter Jose Berrios gets the ball as the Jays look to squeeze out a series win.