Amid the rough times, Blue Jays manager John Schneider is trying to keep his chin up​on September 25, 2025 at 3:11 am

The Blue Jays will wake up Thursday morning knowing they still find themselves atop the AL East, courtesy of the tiebreaker advantage over the New York Yankees.

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That’s the optimistic approach the club must embrace.

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The reality speaks to a team that has found the absolute wrong time for its offence to disappear, while its pitching has been exposed.

“It’s been a rough week for us, but there’s a game (Thursday night) and we have to figure out ways to score,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Wednesday following his team’s 7-1 loss to the visiting Boston Red Sox, who also took Tuesday’s series opener 4-1.

Rough only scratches the surface of a stretch that has seen the Jays’ bats go completely cold.

Toronto is 1-6 in its past seven games. Outside of an 8-5 win on Sunday in Kansas City, the Jays have produced five runs in those games.

On Tuesday, an apparent hit by George Springer was ruled to be a foul ball. On Wednesday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was ejected after a called third strike. Hitting coach David Popkins also was ejected Wednesday.

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“We’re not losing because of the umpires,” continued Schneider. “Let’s get that out there. We’re losing because we’re not scoring enough runs.

“I don’t want to feed into the narrative that the umpires are screwing us, because they’re not.”

Schneider is doing his best to put up a brave front amid the adversity that has struck the club.

Four games left, and the Jays and Yankees are tied. To reiterate, the Jays hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series against the Yankees.

What’s so troubling is how the Jays’ offence has been so completely inept during this recent stretch of futility.

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After Blue Jays starting pitcher Max Scherzer began the game Wednesday with a strikeout, he gave up five straight hits.

“Weird,” said Schneider when asked to size up his veteran’s outing. “He gave us all he had … I didn’t expect that first inning to unfold like it did.”

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Schneider would not reveal who his team’s starting pitcher for Thursday’s series finale is going to be.

“It feels like the sky is falling right now, but it’s (bleeping) not,’’ a defiant Schneider said. “We’ve got 90 wins, we’re in the playoffs and if the season ended today we’re winning the AL East.”

The problem is that the season hasn’t ended.

There’s an overall lack of confidence with this group.

“I don’t want them to get caught up in the last six or seven days because this season has been really, really good,” Schneider said.

Fair enough, but the Jays have been really, really bad of late and the only way to pass judgment is based on the “what have you done for me lately” theory.

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