Jose Alvarez and Martin Maldonado of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim celebrate their victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on May 24, 2018 in Toronto.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
The weather was gorgeous on Thursday and the roof was peeled back to allow the sunshine to pour into Rogers Centre for a rare weekday afternoon start for the Toronto Blue Jays.
More than 43,000 took advantage of the shirt-sleeves-and-shorts atmosphere, many of them youngsters, excited to be anywhere but in a classroom on such a glorious day.
Sunglasses, appropriately, were the giveaway.
But the Blue Jays, again, failed to liven up the proceedings, their continued dreary play deadening the moment faster than a chaperone on prom night.
The Los Angeles Angels (28-22) won 8-1, with the home side mustering just five hits. It is a ho-hum game like this that drives kids indoors to darkened basements to play videogames.
After falling behind 3-0 after three innings – a time when teams usually dig in to try to fight back – the Blue Jays (23-27) went limp, with just three base runners the rest of the way.
The lone Blue Jays highlight was a solo home run in the sixth by Dwight Smith Jr., the first of his major-league career, which cut the Angels lead to 4-1.
The Angels won the three-game series 2-1; the Blue Jays are winless in their past seven series and conclude a seven-game homestand 1-6. They have lost six of their past seven and nine of their past 12 and continue to lose ground in the American League East.
Meanwhile, down on the minor-league ranch in New Hampshire, top Blue Jays prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was up to his old tricks – going 2-for-4, including his ninth home run, in a 7-2 win over Reading. Guerrero’s average is now .425, the best in all of the minors.
With the way the Blue Jays season continues to plummet, you have to wonder how long Toronto can wait before promoting the precocious 19-year-old to the big-league team, if only to liven things up for the paying customers.
The Blue Jays now embark on a nine-game trip, beginning Friday in Philadelphia against the Phillies. After that, Toronto will play in Boston for three against the Red Sox before concluding its journey in Detroit for three.
“I’m ready to get back out on the road,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “There’s no doubt, this was a brutal homestand for us. We got outplayed and a couple of tough losses definitely hurt us.
“Going to some pretty good places, teams that are playing pretty good. But sometimes you need a change of scenery.”
Marco Estrada started for Toronto on Thursday and ran into trouble in the second inning. That started with a leadoff walk to Shohei Ohtani, who glided into third base on a double by Andrelton Simmons.
Both base runners scored when Martin Maldonado teed off on the first pitch he saw from Estrada for another double for a 2-0 Angels lead.
The Angels had three more hits in the third, including two more doubles that carded L.A.’s third run and prompted early activity in the Toronto bullpen.
Estrada lasted just long enough to surrender a solo home run to Mike Trout leading off the fifth, which made the score 4-0. Albert Pujols also jacked one out of the yard in the ninth off Toronto reliever Deck McGuire.
Estrada (2-5) gave up seven hits, four earned runs and two walks with one strikeout.
Nick Tropeano (2-3) threw a career-high 7 1/3 innings and gave up only one run off four hits. He had six strikeouts.
The Blue Jays entered Thursday’s game with a record of 23-26 – the same record they had through 49 games last season. However, the Blue Jays were in fifth place in the AL East then, 6 1/2 games back of first place. Heading into Thursday’s play, the Blue Jays were in third place in the division, but a whopping 11 games behind the front-running Red Sox.
This month has been a complete reversal in form for the Blue Jays, who went 16-12 out of the starter’s gate. In May, Toronto’s record is 7-15.
“We were really swinging the bats in April and the bullpen was lights-out in April,” Gibbons said when asked to try to pinpoint what has gone off the rails. “And some things kind of corrected a little bit like you figured it was going to.
“We haven’t really had the consistency of starting pitching that we expected. So you lump them all together, that’s what happens sometimes.”