Davis Schneider’s Ninth-Inning Homer Couldn’t Save Jays

The cruel thing about Davis Schneider’s ninth-inning homer is that it was real.

It counted.

It was not decorative.

It turned a 4-0 game into a 4-2 game, gave Sean Keys a trip home, and put a small dent in the feeling that the Blue Jays had been locked out entirely.

Schneider homered, his 5th, on a fly ball to left field off Félix Bautista.

A clean swing.

A useful swing.

A swing that arrived after eight innings of waiting.

That is where the grief lives.

Not in the idea that nothing happened.

In the fact that something finally happened when the game had already settled into its shape.

Wednesday ended Baltimore 4, Toronto 2.

The recent series summary ended worse: Lost 4 of 4 vs the Baltimore Orioles.

One late homer cannot tow that wreckage back across the border.

The game was lost before the good noise

The Blue Jays did not score in the first.

Baltimore scored 3 in the bottom half.

That is a blunt way to start.

CJ Van Eyk was on the mound when Christian Encarnacion-Strand singled on a line drive to left fielder Davis Schneider. Pete Alonso scored. Coby Mayo scored.

Van Eyk was still on the mound when Colton Cowser doubled, his 9th, on a fly ball to shortstop Ernie Clement, deflected by Schneider. Encarnacion-Strand scored.

Three runs.

Two scoring plays.

The kind of first inning that makes every later plate appearance feel like it has to carry furniture up stairs.

Then came the bottom of the fourth.

Encarnacion-Strand homered, his 11th, on a fly ball to left field off Van Eyk.

That was Baltimore’s fourth run.

That was also Baltimore’s last run.

Which only makes the rest of the night more irritating in the quiet way.

The Orioles did not keep scoring.

They did not need to.

Toronto had hits, but not an inning

The Blue Jays finished with 6 hits.

That is not abundance, but it is not nothing.

Nathan Lukes went 2-for-4.

Schneider went 1-for-2 with the home run and 2 RBI.

Sean Keys went 1-for-3.

Myles Straw went 1-for-4.

Alejandro Kirk went 1-for-4.

There were baserunners.

There were names in the hit column.

There was even 1 Baltimore error.

Still, Toronto left 6 on base and scored only in the ninth.

That is how a box score becomes misleading if you squint at the wrong parts.

Toronto had more hits than Baltimore, 6 to 4.

Toronto made 0 errors.

Baltimore left only 1 on base.

The Orioles got the game’s early shape right, then did not have to apologize for efficiency.

The Blue Jays spent too long producing the kind of pressure that looks acceptable after the fact and feels absent while the innings are passing.

Ernie Clement went 0-for-3.

Charles McAdoo went 0-for-3.

Josh Smith went 0-for-4.

Kazuma Okamoto went 0-for-4.

Those lines are not moral failures.

They are just baseball failures, and baseball failures are perfectly capable of ruining an evening without help from anybody’s character.

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The staff kept it close enough to hurt

The final pitching total was 4 earned runs and 5 strikeouts.

That is the sort of line that leaves the offense room to make the night something other than miserable.

Chase Lee gave Toronto 1.2 innings, 0 earned runs, and 3 strikeouts.

Brendan Cellucci gave 1.1 innings and 0 earned runs.

Van Eyk’s line was 5.0 innings, 4 earned runs, and 2 strikeouts.

No need to make it more complicated than that.

Baltimore’s damage was concentrated and early.

Toronto’s response was narrow and late.

If this had been a one-off, maybe it would be easier to file it away as one of those nights.

It was not a one-off.

It was the last feeling from a series the Blue Jays lost 4 of 4.

It followed Monday’s 4-3 loss.

It fed the standings that now show 77-82, .484, 3-7 over the last ten, L3, and 5th in the division.

The numbers do not shout.

They just sit there, factual and cold.

The homer deserves its credit and its limits

Schneider was recalled from the Buffalo Bisons earlier this month.

On Wednesday, he supplied the entire scoring line for Toronto.

That matters.

It also does not redeem the series.

A ninth-inning two-run homer is a fine thing inside a single at-bat and a lonely thing inside a four-game losing summary.

The Blue Jays entered this off-day with 159 games played, 636 runs, 4 runs per game, a .248 batting average, a .692 OPS, and 150 home runs.

There are worse offenses in the abstract.

There are also few viewing experiences more exhausting than waiting for this one to find the one swing that should have had company.

Tomorrow brings the Cincinnati Reds at home.

Nick Lodolo is listed for Cincinnati.

No Toronto probable pitcher is listed.

Maybe tomorrow provides a better inning.

Wednesday provided Schneider’s swing, and almost nothing around it.

That is a hard way to end a series.

That is a very Blue Jays way to enter an off-day.