BOSTON — A familiar story unfolded for the Toronto Blue Jays at Fenway Park Friday night.
Solid pitching. Some offence — not enough. Poor defence. Frustrating loss. Playoff odds drop.
This time, there were new twists such as a ball bouncing off Yohendrick Piñango’s back in left field and the first big-league loss for rookie CJ Van Eyk. But the end result was familiar: frustration.
Along the way, there were positives: nine strikeouts from Trey Yesavage, a big night from Nathan Lukes and a historic swing from Kazuma Okamoto, but the time for silver linings is April, or maybe May. It’s certainly not late July.
Under those circumstances, the Blue Jays’ 6-4 loss to the Red Sox was a costly one. They’re now 10 games below .500 and seven games behind the streaking Red Sox for the final American League Wild Card spot.
No one needs to check the Blue Jays’ 7.2 per cent playoff odds to confirm the obvious, anymore: they’re in deep trouble. Reaching the trade deadline at .500 is now an impossibility. Even an eight-game win streak would leave them two games under on Aug. 3.
With each loss, the likelihood of a summer sell-off increases. And while some players prefer to avoid discussing the topic, they’re all aware of what might be coming.
That’s still more than a week away, though. Here in Boston, the Blue Jays turned to Van Eyk in high leverage since relievers Louis Varland and Tyler Rogers were limited after pitching twice in a row against the Rays. Rogers was completely unavailable while the Blue Jays were only going to use Varland in a save situation. Enter Van Eyk in a 4-4 game on the road.
“I know it’s tough,” said manager John Schneider. “This is probably the hardest (ballpark) to come in in the eighth or ninth inning when you’re a young pitcher.”
Of the five hitters Van Eyk faced, four reached and two scored.
Earlier in the game, the Blue Jays rallied when Okamoto hit a three-run home run over the centre field wall. The third baseman had been struggling of late before breaking out with a double and a long home run.
“I didn’t have a hit since the All-Star break,” Okamoto acknowledged through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “So I definitely wanted to do whatever I can to help.”
“He’s unique where he has power to all fields,” Schneider added. “The dead centre (homer) I think, is an example of not being afraid to let it rip and just be ready for certain pitches in certain areas. He’s done a really good job of that.”
“He’s going to go through some ups and downs, but I thought today was a really good one.”
Not only did the homer pull the Blue Jays back to within one, it gave Okamoto 23 on the season, passing Shohei Ohtani for the most homers ever hit by a Japanese rookie.
Asked about passing Ohtani, Okamoto downplayed the significance of the milestone, but Schneider called the moment “pretty cool” and a “great accomplishment.”
Otherwise, it was a quiet night for Blue Jays hitters, though Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had two hits and Daulton Varsho had three.
“Looking back, we had pitches to hit and just didn’t get the results,” Schneider said.
Aside from Okamoto it was Lukes who had the biggest night among Blue Jays position players. Soon after entering the game as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, he threw out Caleb Durbin trying to score. Two innings later, he hit a leadoff double and scored the game’s tying run.
On the pitching side, Yesavage struck out nine Red Sox over four innings, but he allowed three runs, including two home runs, on five hits and one walk. Despite the short outing, the rookie generated 17 swinging strikes while topping out at 95.8 m.p.h.
“I got ahead early,” Yesavage said. “I think every batter I faced I got to a two-strike count.”
On Saturday, it’ll be Dylan Cease against Sonny Gray as the Blue Jays look to even out the series. But after a fifth loss in six days, the 2026 Blue Jays are a long way from where they thought they’d be without an obvious pathway back to the playoff picture.
“We’ve just got to come together and win ballgames and play for each other,” Yesavage said.
