Bats go cold as Blue Jays slip in Wild Card chase

TORONTO — Boos turned into silence as the home team’s struggles continued.

The Blue Jays couldn’t get much to bounce their way in Wednesday night’s 10-0 loss to the Rangers at Rogers Centre. Amid a three-game skid, Toronto is now one game out of an American League Wild Card spot.

Save for a pair of impressive defensive plays by Davis Schneider and Ernie Clement early on, the Blue Jays remained quiet on all fronts, mustering just five hits (none of them for extra bases), while Yusei Kikuchi stumbled for six runs over five innings.

It was enough to drive a largely lenient fanbase to the edge of its patience. From the seventh inning until the final out, the crowd oscillated between jeers and quiet frustration.

“Not great,” manager John Schneider said. “[We] understand that fans want to see exciting, winning baseball, sure. As competitors, players, staff, myself, you don’t like to hear it. But at the same time, we appreciate them voicing their frustration when it is deserved.”

George Springer echoed that mindset.

“They expect us to win, and that’s fair,” Springer said. “And I think everybody understands that. There’s nobody that wants to win more than us in this locker room. I don’t think it’s for lack of effort, I know that the guys in here are trying, we’re doing our best.

“It may not seem that way because of the result, but at the end of the day, it’s understandable. Guys expect to play better and I know the fans do, too.”

The blowout loss came one day after Toronto surrendered the AL Wild Card tiebreaker by officially losing the season series to Texas. The Blue Jays own the tiebreaker over the Astros. Toronto’s 12-25 intradivision record means it will almost certainly lose out in a tiebreaker situation with Seattle (26-13).

Adding insult to injury, Toronto has seen its most nagging trend of the season resurface in the first three games of this four-game set against the Rangers: the peaks and valleys of the offense.

Blue Jays batters have largely been unable to come up with timely hits against a pitching staff that arrived north of the border with a ton of question marks around it. But if the first two games were marked by wasted opportunities, Rangers starter Jordan Montgomery made sure to give no such chances on Wednesday.

“They’re living on the edges,” Schneider said of Montgomery’s game plan. “And when you’re not putting the ball in play with authority, you’re going to have the results we had today.”

Those results included just four balls put in play at 95 mph or higher, according to Statcast. Only one of those translated into a hit — Clement’s single off Martín Pérez in the eighth.

A dominant sweep of the Royals to start the current 10-game homestand seemed to have put some of those offensive struggles to bed — especially after Bo Bichette’s two-hit, two-RBI return from the injured list on Friday.

But even the All-Star shortstop, who’s been seemingly immune to this lineup’s ebbs and flows for most of the season, finds himself in a slump.

Bichette went a combined 0-for-12 in the first three games against Texas as pitchers continue to exploit his chase tendencies with low breaking balls. He’s also gone hitless in four straight games overall, one shy of his season-worst span in July.

“He’s arguably our best hitter and one of the best hitters in the league,” Schneider said of Bichette. “It’s tough to take a 12-day layoff and come back into Major League action. People don’t understand how hard that is.”

It’s no secret that Toronto will need the big bats to regain some dominance as the season gets shorter and the AL Wild Card race gets tighter.

“You just want guys to be who they are,” Schneider said. “There’s been ebbs and flows with individuals and there’s been ebbs and flows with the team. And it seems to have happened — whether it’s pitching or offense — at an inopportune time.”

The Blue Jays’ ebbs and flows have also shown how high their ceiling can be, and what the club can do when it all “clicks,” as has become a common saying among the players.

It’s all about making sure it clicks at the optimal moment.

“We don’t have a choice,” Springer said. “It is what it is. It’s done, it’s over, and we’re on to tomorrow.”