Max Scherzer Gets Orioles After Blue Jays Zero

The Blue Jays are home today, which is nice, because the bats spent Wednesday behaving like they had been packed in the wrong suitcase.

Friday brings the Baltimore Orioles, Max Scherzer for Toronto, Chris Bassitt for Baltimore, and one very simple request.

Please locate the run department.

Not the vibes department.

Not the almost department.

Runs.

Toronto lost 2-0 to the Athletics in the last game, a road result with 6 hits, 0 errors, and 7 left on base. That is less a box score than a polite hostage note.

The Athletics had 2 runs on 4 hits. The only scoring play supplied was Henry Bolte’s 10th homer in the bottom of the third off Michael Lorenzen.

That was enough.

A two-run opponent is supposed to be a manageable household chore. The Blue Jays turned it into assembling a bookshelf with missing screws.

Scherzer day is not a magic wand

Max Scherzer is the probable pitcher today.

That is an actual plan, not a scented candle.

But even Scherzer cannot throw a shutout on behalf of hitters who are leaving runners on base like forgotten reusable bags.

The standings say 73-74, .497, L1, 6-4 in the last ten, and a division rank of 4. This is not a collapse. This is a treadmill wearing stirrups.

The Jays are near enough to .500 to hear it making toast in the next room, but not actually inside the kitchen.

That is the season.

Always one hallway away from the snacks.

Scherzer’s job against Baltimore is to make the game sturdy. He can do that. He has been handed the baseball and the assignment.

The offense’s job is to avoid turning 0-0 into a lifestyle brand.

This is where the preview becomes less complicated than a cereal box maze.

Score.

Preferably before everyone at home starts bargaining with the couch cushions.

Six hits, no parade

Wednesday was not hitless, which is important if you are building the world’s saddest technical defence.

Ernie Clement had a hit. Charles McAdoo had a hit. Andrés Giménez had a hit. Brett Bateman had a hit. Nathan Lukes had a hit. Alejandro Kirk had a hit.

This is not nothing.

It is also not a run.

That is the cruel comedy of 6 hits and 7 left on base. The inning starts to look like a dinner party, then nobody knows where the plates are.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-3. Kazuma Okamoto went 0-for-4. Brandon Valenzuela went 0-for-3. Myles Straw went 0-for-2. George Springer and Josh Smith each had an 0-for-1 line.

Nobody needs a scarlet letter.

They need a timely swing.

The team season line still says 589 runs, 4.01 runs per game, a .248 batting average, a .692 OPS, and 140 home runs. That profile does not scream unstoppable carnival machine.

It also does not scream zero runs forever, unless the carnival machine has been unplugged by a raccoon.

Chris Bassitt is the listed opposing probable pitcher for Baltimore. He is not coming over to supervise a healing circle.

He is coming to get outs.

The Jays have to make the at-bats do more than collect participation stickers.

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The mound already made its point

The truly annoying thing about the last loss is that the pitching did not set fire to the curtains.

Toronto’s pitching totals were 5 strikeouts and 2 earned runs.

Louis Varland threw 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs and 2 strikeouts. Joe Mantiply threw 1.1 innings with 0 earned runs. Paul Sewald threw 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs. Braydon Fisher threw 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout. Tyler Rogers threw 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs. Michael Lorenzen threw 2.2 innings with 2 earned runs and 2 strikeouts.

The defence made 0 errors.

That is enough support from the non-hitting departments to expect a baseball game instead of an escape room.

If your pitchers allow 2 runs and your fielders make 0 errors, the offense has to bring at least a casserole.

Toronto brought napkins.

Very organized napkins.

No casserole.

Baltimore is not a therapy animal

The Blue Jays lost 2 of 3 to the Athletics.

Tuesday was a 5-6 loss. Wednesday contained a 4-2 win and then the 0-2 loss. That is a series shaped like a shopping cart with one wheel trying to leave the province.

Now the Orioles arrive, and the only useful response is not a speech.

It is not a clubhouse slogan.

It is not staring at the standings until .497 becomes .500 out of embarrassment.

It is taking the Scherzer start and giving it actual oxygen.

Score early if possible. Score late if necessary. Score by a line drive, a bloop, a mistake, a ball kicked into tomorrow by the cosmic dishwasher.

Nobody is picky right now.

The Jays do not need to solve the entire 2026 season today.

They just need to make the Orioles game look less like a documentary about stranded commuters.

Max Scherzer gets the ball.

Chris Bassitt is across from him.

The Blue Jays are home.

Please, for the love of all raccoons wearing replica jerseys, do not make 2 runs feel like Mount Everest again.