Blue Jays looking to rediscover July form after slow start to August

TORONTO -- The Blue Jays trudged off the field in the middle of the 10th, that magical July feeling impossibly far away.

After leading by one run for most of Sunday afternoon's game against the Royals, Toronto yet again found itself on the wrong end of a big inning, allowing five runs in the top of the 10th en route to a 7-4 loss at Rogers Centre.

Seranthony Domínguez took the loss after Louis Varland coughed up the lead in the eighth, but this was deeper than a bad day for the pair of newcomers. For the second game in a row, the Blue Jays did not produce an extra-base hit, squandering their chances to put the game out of reach before another late implosion.

It was fair to expect the Blue Jays to come back down to earth after a stretch that saw them climb to the top of the Major League Baseball standings. But as problems mount on both sides of the ball, this moment is about retrieving what made them great over the past couple of months.

“Overall, just take your licks,” said starter Chris Bassitt. “It's going to happen through the year. Obviously, we went on a big stretch of giving everyone else [trouble]. So yeah, it's just getting back to who we are as a team -- good pitching from the starters to the bullpen and just grinding out at-bats and being a good offensive team.”

Coming back to Rogers Centre after a tough series in Baltimore seemed like the perfect starting point for a return to form, considering the Blue Jays entered this series with an MLB-best 37-17 home record. Instead, they were handed their first series loss at home since June 20-22 against the White Sox -- and their first back-to-back series losses since early May.

It’s true that these moments come and go, but Toronto had opportunities to take back control. Take the bottom of the second, for example, when Myles Straw delivered a two-out bases-loaded single that scored the first run of the game. But Ernie Clement got caught between second and third on the throw to the infield, and the last out of the inning was made on the bases.

“It's one of those days where there's going to be a small opportunity for some mistakes to take advantage of,” said manager John Schneider. “And we just didn't.”

The Royals didn’t fall into the same trap. Bassitt held his opponents hitless all the way until the fifth inning, though some issues with his landing spot on the mound contributed to a pair of walks and a hit-by-pitch that turned into a game-tying sacrifice fly in the fourth. He recovered in time to complete six innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts, three walks and just one single allowed.

“He just continues to kind of reset and answer the bell and make big pitches when he needs to,” said Schneider. “So, I thought his outing was really encouraging. One to build on going forward.”

It was a tight one until the 10th. Then, things unravelled in a hurry.

Domínguez was unable to retire any of the four batters he faced, allowing the Royals to score three times before giving way to Tommy Nance. A sacrifice fly and a throwing error by Alejandro Kirk -- who was activated off the 7-day concussion injured list on Sunday -- knocked the wind out of the sold-out home crowd and proved to be too much to overcome.

The Blue Jays didn’t go down quietly, taking a couple of runs back in the bottom half on RBI singles from Nathan Lukes and Addison Barger. But those crooked innings -- so common for this team right now -- can make things go from hard to impossible without some pop to the bats.

Maybe it’s too much to expect the Blue Jays to recapture the magic of July, but they need to shoo away the ghost of seasons past. A three-game set in Colorado against the Rockies -- the team with MLB’s worst record -- to start this week may be the right stage for it.

“This group is so good at turning the page to the next day,” said Schneider. “That's, I think, one of the many reasons why we are where we are. [I’m] confident that we'll continue to do that going forward. You look at the 10th inning there, we feel like we're never out of a game, and that's just been apparent from the get-go this year.

"So, you’ve got to move on. You’ve got to endure a little bit of a long flight, but I think the guys will respond and not take anything for granted.”