The ball just popped out of Austin Hedges’ glove when the Toronto Blue Jays slugger swung his bat through the zone, frustrated that he didn’t swing. Bieber’s next pitch was a slider to the same spot, inducing a weak ground ball that ended the inning and preserved the lead. It was a plate performance that is emblematic of the Blue Jays as a whole right now, a team stuck between gears and the results show it. The 7-2 setback for the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday afternoon was their sixth loss in eight outings, with back-to-back losses after a pair of splits previously, all against other contenders. The Blue Jays, now 61-52, haven’t won back-to-back games since August and another tough week looms against the Baltimore Orioles, against whom they are 2-4 going into three games on Monday. A four-game set at the New York Yankees, who they are 4-8 against, is right after. “That at-bat, in short, if you look at what Beiber did during the game, it wasn’t too many back-to-back heaters, so he probably had Vladdy in between,” interim manager John said. Schneider said of the pivotal seventh matchup. “And in general, if you have a staff like (Cleveland’s) spotting, we have to make an adjustment. We have to be able to either lay off pitches or when they’re in the middle of the plate, do some damage and get on base. So I think that’s the adjustment that’s coming, and I’m looking forward to doing that against Baltimore.” A boost is expected Monday when George Springer is likely to be activated from the injured list. Ross Stripling is set to return for a start on Wednesday, pushing Jose Berrios back a day in the opener in the Bronx. Neither will fix things on their own. Sunday’s loss, in front of a crowd of 41,002, was one of the more disappointing recent setbacks, the Blue Jays bled by a Cleveland team adept at making perennial paper cutters. Kevin Gausman fell victim to that, allowing five runs in 4.2 innings, the four that followed Amed Rosario’s first-inning solo shot each a byproduct of the BABIP blues. For example, Austin Hedges’ RBI single in the second came on a blooper that fell just in front of Raimel Tapia in center and then bounced over his head allowing Owen Miller to score from second. In the third, Alejandro Kirk’s throwing error on Tyler Freeman’s stolen base put the third baseman at third and allowed him to score easily when Cavan Biggio missed a Hedges fly ball down the right-field line for a double. In the fifth, a single by Josh Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., off a diving Whit Merrifield, deflected into center and allowed Rosario, who had advanced on a wild pitch, before a double by Miller brought home the fifth. route. With a tighter defense, the damage could easily have been much more limited and the game not so out of reach. “Sometimes it’s the way the game goes, it’s baseball,” Gausman said. “When the pitch is out of your hands, you can’t determine the outcome a lot of times. It’s frustrating at times, but that’s how it goes. You just realize that it’s going to change at some point. I’ve had a lot of bad luck this year, but at some point it will change.” The Blue Jays had their chances, tied 1-1 in the first on a Teoscar Hernandez RBI double that put men on second and third with one out, but Bieber rallied to strike out Matt Chapman before Naylor swallowed a Tapia smash at 105.6 mph at first base. Another chance to put up a crooked number came in the fifth, when the Blue Jays again put men on second and third with one out, but Guerrero swung at the first-pitch slider before swinging back into the field for a run-scoring groundout. Kirk then lined a ball to right center, but Myles Straw struck it out to end the inning. At 0-for-4 on the day, Guerrero’s hitting streak ended at 22 games. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., whose tenure at No. 1 will end with Springer’s return, had three of the Blue Jays’ eight hits on Sunday. On the weekend, they managed just four runs on 17 hits while testing their approach from Cal Quantrill, Triston McKenzie and Bieber. “Overall, guys over the course of the year do a good job of deciding what pitches they’re going to swing at — right now, probably in a little while,” Schneider said. “And when you’re facing a pitching staff that spots well, it just amps it up a little bit. But what we preach all the time is to have a good pitch, don’t miss it and lay off the ones that are sharp, edges away.” The Orioles’ improved pitching staff won’t provide the same test, but as they roam the increasingly stacked wild-card standings, that would be a mistake. Building some momentum against them would provide a good springboard into the upcoming clash with the Yankees, the first meeting for the rivals since June, when New York took two of three here. “Obviously, we’re not playing the best baseball right now, but we’ve got the Orioles coming into a new streak,” Gausman said. “We’ve got to be able to just turn the page and realize you can’t dwell on it too long, especially this time of year. We have put ourselves in a good position now. We just have to keep our heads down and focus on ourselves and not focus too much on what’s going on around the league.”
