Blue Jays Solo Homers Cannot Save 12-4 Loss
Three loud swings made the night less silent. They did not make it close, and that is the ache.
The cruel part is that the Blue Jays did hit the ball out of the park.
Luis Urías homered.
George Springer homered.
Brandon Valenzuela homered.
Three separate reminders that baseball can still make a clean sound.
Then you look up and the score is Chicago White Sox 12, Toronto Blue Jays 4, and the clean sounds feel like someone sweeping glass into a corner.
This is what a bad loss does to offense.
It turns bright moments into evidence of insufficiency.
The runs arrived too politely
Toronto scored once in the third, once in the fourth, once in the fifth, and once in the sixth.
That looks orderly on a line score.
It felt doomed in real time.
By the time the Blue Jays scored in the bottom of the third, they were already down 5-0. George Springer grounded into a force out off Anthony Kay, and Ernie Clement scored. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. moved to third. Kazuma Okamoto was out at second.
It was a run with traffic attached, but not enough damage.
In the fourth, Urías homered to left off Kay.
In the fifth, Springer homered to left off Trevor Richards.
In the sixth, Valenzuela homered to right off Richards.
All useful.
All real.
All swallowed whole.
There was no Toronto inning that changed the shape of the game. No crooked number. No pressure wave. No moment where Chicago had to consider the possibility that the night was slipping.
The Jays were collecting runs like loose change while the White Sox were paying cash.
Nine left on base is its own kind of silence
The final offensive line was not barren.
Toronto had 7 hits.
Ernie Clement went 2-for-4. Urías, Springer, Valenzuela, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Alejandro Kirk each had a hit.
Springer drove in 2 runs. Urías and Valenzuela each drove in 1.
There are worse box scores.
There are also box scores that explain themselves by how much they waste.
The Blue Jays left 9 on base.
Nine is a number that makes the mind wander through all the little doors that did not open. Again, not because a 12-4 game was secretly stolen by one missing swing. That would be too generous to the rest of the night.
But because 9 left on base means the offense gave itself chances to make the misery less complete.
It did not.
Daulton Varsho went 0-for-4. Myles Straw went 0-for-4. Kazuma Okamoto went 0-for-3. Jonatan Clase went 0-for-1.
Those are not moral failures.
They are outs in a game where Toronto needed more than isolated noise.
The White Sox made no errors. The Blue Jays made 1.
Chicago did not help.
Toronto did not force help.
And so the home runs became postcards from a place the team never reached.
Chicago scored in paragraphs
The difference was not subtle.
The White Sox scored 5 in the top of the second, 3 in the top of the fifth, and 4 in the top of the seventh.
Toronto kept answering with one.
One is not useless.
One is also not enough when the other side is dropping furniture down the stairs.
In the second, Spencer Miles was on the mound as Chicago did all the early work. Kyle Teel doubled to left, scoring Colson Montgomery. Braden Montgomery reached on a fielder’s choice, with Andrew Benintendi scoring. Chase Meidroth singled to center, scoring Braden Montgomery. Sam Antonacci homered to right, scoring Meidroth.
There it was.
Five runs before Toronto had scored one.
In the fifth, with Adam Macko pitching, Colson Montgomery doubled to left. Chase Meidroth scored. Sam Antonacci scored. Munetaka Murakami scored.
That pushed the game back out of reach just after Toronto had done a little climbing.
In the seventh, Braydon Fisher was pitching when Braden Montgomery tripled to right, scoring Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, and Randal Grichuk. Tristan Peters then hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Braden Montgomery.
The White Sox did not nibble.
They took full bites.
The season keeps explaining the game
After 97 games, the Blue Jays are 45-52.
Their winning percentage is .464. Their last ten is 4-6. Their streak is L3. Their division rank is 5.
This is not one ugly night floating apart from the rest of the year.
It is one ugly night that fits too comfortably.
The season numbers say the Jays have scored 396 runs, 4.08 runs per game, with a .244 batting average, a .691 OPS, and 101 home runs.
Friday added a familiar shape to that ledger.
Enough power to avoid total embarrassment.
Not enough sustained offense to make the opponent sweat.
Not enough pitching to keep the score within reach while the lineup tried to assemble something.
CJ Van Eyk gave Toronto 2.0 innings with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout. That deserves mention because not everything has to be buried under the final score.
But the team pitching total was 11 earned runs allowed.
The final was 12-4.
You cannot decorate that.
Saturday brings another game against the White Sox at home. Shane Bieber is listed for Toronto. Davis Martin is listed for Chicago.
The sport will offer a new box score, because it always does.
Still, Friday leaves a residue.
Three home runs should feel like something.
In this loss, they felt like three candles lit in a room with the ceiling gone.
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