Blue Jays need 5th starter, home run help after latest loss

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The way things had been going for the Blue Jays offence, the Easter Sunday matinee was as good as over just eight pitches into the ball game.

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Or it felt like that for beleaguered starter Easton Lucas, anyway.

That’s right, eight pitches.

In the blink of an eye, the visiting Seattle Mariners had a home run from leadoff hitter Dylan Moore (third pitch), a hard-hit double off the left-field wall from Julio Rodriguez (fourth pitch) and a Cal Raleigh homer (eighth pitch.)

Just like that, the bubble on the Blue Jays’ fifth starter by consolation, Lucas, had officially popped in a second straight start.

And with it, the continuation of the Jays’ biggest potential crisis of the young season was in full flare-up mode. Without a back-of-the-rotation option given the ongoing thumb drama experienced by veteran Max Scherzer, the Jays find themselves in a bind. And one that is looking more serious with each passing turn through the rotation.

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Put bluntly: In the wake of Sunday’s disheartening 8-3 loss to the Mariners at the Rogers Centre, what do the Blue Jays do now?

The next scheduled appearance for Lucas’s spot in the rotation would be next weekend at Yankee Stadium and it’s hard to imagine they would trot the young left-hander out for that game after back-to-back miserable efforts.

That said, the options beyond Lucas, who gave the team two superb starts before reality hit him on the chin in this now-finished homestand, are thin to say the least.

Down on the farm is Jake Bloss, who would line up for a possible weekend start in the Bronx but is a less than ideal option. There’s always the chance they give Lucas one more crack, given how good he was in the first two starts of his big-league career while taking over for Scherzer in early April.

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For his part, Lucas was clearly disgusted with Sunday’s performance.

“It’s really frustrating. Just awful,” the lefty said. “I wasn’t throwing strikes … was just bad all around. It’s a really bad sign when you strike out five and give up six (hits) in 1 2/3 (innings) because it means if you are executing, you can get outs.

“But every time I just managed to screw it up.”

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But after getting beat up by the Atlanta Braves and Mariners in successive starts, the regression is concerning.

In the broader picture, nothing huge was expected from Lucas other than keeping the team in a couple of ball games, which he did admirably. And what to do beyond that was going to be the issue.

Of course, this was always going to be the risk of signing Scherzer to a one-year, $15.5-million US deal. It’s fine to take the risk as long as there is a backup plan should something go awry with a 40-year-old arm.

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Scherzer is expected to join the Jays in Houston on Monday after getting a second cortisone injection on his right thumb. Even if all is good, he’s weeks away from rejoining the rotation. And even that is an optimistic outlook.

A couple more takeaways as the Jays fell to 12-10 on Sunday and suffered just their second series loss of the season:

RELIEF REQUIRED

The Lucas struggles took away from a terrific major-league debut by Paxton Schultz, who was summoned from triple-A Buffalo as a salve for a beat-up Jays bullpen.

Pressed into action when the starter couldn’t get out of the second inning, Schultz gave the Jays 4 1/3 innings of shutout ball, striking out eight Mariners batters while allowing just a pair of hits.

And what a thrilling big-league debut it was for the 27-year-old Utah native, who drove from Buffalo Sunday morning and was summoned into the game before it was two innings old.

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“For a guy that came up here in a car this morning and signed his contract … that was amazing,” Schneider said. “He executed really well and he saved our bullpen.”

Added Schultz, whose eight strikeouts tied the MLB record for the most in debut by a reliever: “This is something you work towards your whole life and to be able to finally be out there and perform and have success was just unbelievable.”

Besides giving the Jays some length with 64 pitches (50 for strikes), Schultz did a decent job keeping the Jays in the game. Any hope of a comeback was quickly scuttled, however, when the other Sunday callup, Dillon Tate, gave up a two-run homer to former Jay Rowdy Tellez (his third of the series.).

POWER OUTAGE (CONTINUED)

From the broken record department, it was another lopsided day in the home run department as the Mariners outslugged the Jays 3-0 in long balls.

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That season-long malaise is already costing the Jays wins. The Mariners series was the second of the season that the Jays didn’t manage at least one home run, a profound shortcoming for a team that just can’t produce in explosive fashion.

Consider that the Jays banged out 11 hits on Sunday, a respectable output in some ways. But the loudest noise was four doubles, the rest all relatively benign singles. With Schultz keeping them in the game, any semblance of explosiveness in the offence could have changed things dramatically.

In taking two of three in the series, the home-run tally was 6-0 in favour of the Mariners.

For his part, Schneider wasn’t worried about the lack of power, even though that narrative is sounding like a broken record to some.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to panic that it’s not here now,” Schneider said. “That will come and I think it will come fairly quickly.”

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