Blue Jays' Two Errors Shadow 5-1 Loss to Reds
Toronto struck out 12 Reds and was charged with two earned runs. The final score offered no comfort.
The pitching total says 12 strikeouts and two earned runs.
The scoreboard says Cincinnati Reds 5, Toronto Blue Jays 1.
Between those two lines sit two Blue Jays errors, five Toronto hits, and a game that never felt as close as some of its numbers might suggest.
It would be convenient to choose one culprit. Blame the gloves. Blame the bats. File the pitchers under unfortunate bystanders and be done with it.
Saturday does not fit neatly into that folder.
The Reds scored in the second, third, and fifth. The Blue Jays scored in the seventh. Toronto had time to make a response and could only produce a run on an out.
That is not one failure. It is several small failures sharing a final score.
The third inning left a mark
JJ Bleday opened the scoring with a second-inning homer off Trey Yesavage.
In the third, Sal Stewart reached on a fielder’s choice fielded by shortstop Andrés Giménez. Matt McLain scored, Carlos Jorge went to third, and Giménez was charged with a fielding error.
Eugenio Suárez then doubled off Spencer Miles, bringing Jorge home.
The Reds had two runs in the inning. Toronto had a specific defensive mistake recorded in the middle of it.
That does not license an invented account of every run or every error. The box score lists two Toronto errors; the provided scoring account identifies Giménez’s on that third-inning play. It does not identify the other one.
The mistake we can name is enough to hurt. A club struggling to score cannot afford to make its opponent’s work easier, especially while the game is still waiting for its first Toronto run.
Giménez would later drive in Toronto’s only run with a seventh-inning groundout. His afternoon contains both facts. Neither one erases the other.
Strikeouts are not a final score
John Klein worked 4.0 innings, struck out five, and was charged with no earned runs. He was on the mound in the fifth when Héctor Rodríguez tripled and Bleday and Tyler Stephenson scored.
That is precisely why the pitching line and the scoreboard must be read together. No earned runs in a pitcher’s line does not mean the runs on the board vanished.
Yesavage recorded three strikeouts in 2.0 innings and was charged with one earned run. Miles recorded two strikeouts in 1.0 inning and was charged with one earned run. Brendon Little and Braydon Fisher each worked 1.0 inning without an earned run charged to either.
The staff total was 12 strikeouts and two earned runs. It is a line that suggests there were outs to be found. It is not a line that changes what the Reds scored.
Cincinnati finished with six hits and no errors. Toronto finished with five hits and two errors.
The difference is not captured by one neat pitching statistic.
The bats offered no margin
The Blue Jays did not score until the seventh. Kazuma Okamoto came home when Giménez grounded out to Matt McLain, who threw to first baseman Sal Stewart. Josh Smith advanced to third.
That was the whole Toronto scoring account.
Brett Bateman went 2-for-3. Giménez, Sean Keys, and Smith had hits. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk each went 0-for-4.
There were six Blue Jays left on base. There was not enough pressure converted into runs.
It is tempting to stare at the two errors because they are so plainly marked. A scorer writes them down for you. Offensive absence is less tidy. It arrives as another scoreless inning, then another, until the one run looks lonely beside five for the other team.
A cleaner defensive game would have been welcome. It would not make one Toronto run an adequate response to the Reds’ afternoon.
No single column can carry the blame
The Blue Jays are 78-83 after Saturday, with a 3-7 mark in their last ten. That record is not an argument that every loss looks the same.
This one had its own particular sadness.
Twelve strikeouts from the pitching staff should be a detail a fan can take home. Bateman’s two hits should be another. Giménez’s RBI should count for what it was.
Instead, each detail needs the same qualification: Toronto lost 5-1, made two errors, and found its only run on a groundout.
Sunday brings the Reds back, with Max Scherzer listed against Brandon Williamson.
The Blue Jays will get another box score. Saturday’s remains difficult to read without noticing how many columns had to go wrong at once.
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