It was one of those nights that just makes you feel sick. The Toronto Blue Jays were playing in arguably their biggest game of the year and put up an absolute goose egg. A few hours later on the West Coast, their arch rivals from last years' World Series got to celebrate a walk-off win thanks to the guy whom the Blue Jays pursued during this past offseason.
Down 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth at Dodgers Stadium, Kyle Tucker stepped up with the bases loaded and two outs with his team down 4-3 to the Miami Marlins. He sent an 0-1 pitch into center field to cash in the tying and winning runs, sending the Dodgers to a 5-4 win.
It's the first really big moment for Tucker as a member of the Dodgers, on a night when the Blue Jays, playing a division rival for the first time all year, couldn't buy a hit. It was Tucker's only hit of that game and the 29-year-old is hoping that can help get his season on track after starting the year slashing .230/.320/.364 with three home runs in his first 28 games for a team that threw $240 million at him for a four-year commitment.
Blue Jays need to kill any momentum their rivals may be building
Tucker was the latest of a series of players who spurned the Blue Jays as a free agent target, electing instead to wear Dodger blue. And in the wake of all the injuries the Blue Jays have had this season, even with Tuckers below average numbers, it would have been nice to have some stability in the lineup for Toronto. But that ship has sailed, and all the Blue Jays can do now is try to weather the storm with what they have.
That proved to be a very tough challenge for them on Monday night in their series opener against the Boston Red Sox. A team that was already panicking a month into the season. Entering Monday, the Red Sox had an 11-17 record, and were mired at the bottom of the entire American League standings. Due to that record, they fired long-time manager Alex Cora ahead of Sunday's game and came into Toronto off a completely dysfunctional press conference that saw there was no cohesion between the front office and the clubhouse.
But with former Triple-A Worcester manager Chad Tracy at the helm, the Red Sox have responded with two straight wins, including one over the Blue Jays, a 5-0 dismantling at the hands of Ranger Suarez.
Suarez was one of Boston's offseason pick ups, an addition that looked to be a good move to bulk up their rotation ahead of the season and was supposed to be a strength for the team. But the rotation has had some mixed results, and has lost Sonny Gray to the Injured List. Suarez himself has seen two brilliant starts where he went a combined 14 innings of five hit ball with ten strikeouts and no runs allowed in back to back games against St. Louis and Detroit. But before and after that he had allowed 12 runs in 13 innings with nine strikeouts.
So naturally, Suarez came in and carved up the Blue Jays lineup, holing them to one hit over eight innings and getting ten strikeouts. It was a big game for Toronto considering it was at home, they were coming off a series win, and had a chance to squish any moment their division rivals were gaining off having a new voice in the clubhouse. Alas, that's the way Toronto's season has gone at times this year - just when it looks like everything is turning a corner and the Blue Jays can get into a groove, they suffer a setback.
Now, they'll turn to rookie Trey Yesavage, who gets the ball for the first time in the majors in 2026. After a slow build up in the spring due to a shoulder impingement, Yesavage will be on the mound at Rogers Centre on Tuesday night (Apr. 28) for the first time since he pitched in Game 7 of the World Series, with the hopes of giving the Blue Jays a breath of fresh air and a chance to rally against the only team in the division that has had a worse start to the seaso than them.