Blue Jays blast Marlins 8-1 on three HRs and without Vlad

Sketchy defence keeping Jays mired in mediocrity

The Blue Jays on Tuesday night in the much-appreciated summer-like atmosphere of an open-air Rogers Centre clubbed the pesky Marlins 8-1, behind three homers, including a grand slam by right fielder Jesus Sanchez. Rule 5 rookie Spencer Miles pitched 4-1/3 innings of one-run ball in relief of opener Brayden Fisher.

For those that shrug and believe the Jays should be beating teams like Miami with regularity, it should be noted that Tuesday’s win evened the series and merely served to vault the Jays past the Marlins by a half game in the overall standings. Yes, Toronto has been decidedly mediocre for the first 55 games, at 26-29.

The Jays’ six-game homestand concludes on Wednesday afternoon with the rubber game of the series. Afterwards, the Jays head to Baltimore (4) and Atlanta (3). The schedule does not get any easier and for the Jays to battle back to above .500 and get themselves back in a wildcard race, they will need to tighten up their defence.

The Blue Jays, for the past several years, under GM Ross Atkins and his data-driven front-office group, have loved to emphasize “run prevention”, the combination of solid pitching enhanced by superior defence. This year it’s not been happening for them.

The Jays for the past several years, have leaned into a 5-man rotation led by veterans who take the ball every 5-6 days, accumulate 30-32 starts and log 170-200 innings…supported by a superior defence. Think Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and now, in 2026, Dylan Cease. But this year, through 55 games, the Jays’ run-prevention formula has not been quite the same. Blame injuries to six starting pitchers and an outfield that pays nightly tribute to Ernest Hemingway’s classic A Farewell to Arms.

Bassitt departed via free agency. Cease recently went on the IL with a hamstring tweak. Berrios ended a streak of eight 30+ start seasons and will miss the entire season with a trifecta of elbow procedures. Gausman soldiers on alone at this point, seconded by the talented youngster, Yesavage.

As for the defence, it’s much harder to quantify. The outfield has been the main culprit in letting down the pitchers. Bad routes and weak arms, a deadly combo. Just consider Monday’s debacle with left fielder Yohendrick Pinango in non-support of Trey Yesavage.

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In Game 1 of the series, trailing 2-1, Yesavage, the 22-year-old rookie was in control for most of six innings vs. the Marlins, until the hesitant Pinango butchered a flyball with two out in the sixth, on which he mistakenly expected Andres Gimenez to make the play in short left field. Yesavage was already walking off the field. The veteran shortstop had shifted up the middle and peeled off after a long run, clearly giving way to the onrushing outfielder. That routine catch would have ended the inning. Pinango compounded the gaffe by kicking the ball toward centre field on a feet-first slide that scored a run all the way from first. The outfielder racing in is expected to take flyballs in front of him that he can reach comfortably. He could and he didn’t.

The rookie, who at times has provided a needed spark with his lethanded bat, later in the sixth, butchered another ball over his head on which he drop-stepped with the wrong foot. That initial misstep spiraled as his attempt to catch the ball on the warning track devolved into a discombobulated double.

“I worry about it in-game,” Schneider said of the effects of bad defence on a pitcher. “You think you have the third out and all of a sudden you don’t and a run is in. You have to lock it back in there and keep it right there. You don’t want to let your guard down. You see it happen a lot. You see it happen all the time, especially the third out of an inning. You kind of go, ‘Okay, I’m out of it’ and then you have to lock it back in. Pitchers get it.”

Yesavage on the original misplay would have been through the sixth in an efficient 72 pitches. Instead, he threw 15 more pitches to get the final out, allowed three earned runs (that he didn’t deserve) in the sixth. He retired two more batters in the seventh, leaving with a pitch count of 98 and a 2-1 deficit that had undeservedly turned into 5-2.

“Trey was great,” Schneider said prior to Tuesday’s game. “His line should have looked different. He probably could have gone eight innings, with the way he was pitching and where his pitch count was. The score looks different. His ERA looks different. I think you evaluate pitchers, sort of, in a vacuum. You have to play well behind them (defensively).”

This is not the same defensive team effort that provided such a spark for the Jays in 2025 and brought fans out of their seats numerous times on the extended run to Game 7 of the World Series. Thus far, the Jays had made a total of 34 errors – 10 by pitchers, nine by catchers and countless more mental errors that have not showed up in the boxscore but have been costly, nevertheless.

“There’s been a few guys who have started slow, who are really good defenders,” Schneider opined. “(Pitchers) get docked on certain plays and your numbers look a certain way. It catches up, usually.

“We definitely have standards for a few guys that could be a little bit better than they are. There’s different personnel, right. Like, you’re missing (Nathan Lukes) for a while and he’s pretty damn good in the outfield. There’s different traits that we have (now) compared to what we have had in the past, too.”

There was good news for Pinango in that Schneider stayed with him and played him immediately despite the disastrous performance. He was out in left field again on Tuesday. Mid-afternoon, the youngster had been out on the empty Rogers Centre field working on his routes with coach Mark Budzinski and it paid off with several tough catches in the game and the bonus of a solo homer in the sixth for a 2-0 lead.

“I thought for sure, the first ball of the game was going to go to him,” Schneider smiled. “That’s just how baseball works. (Monday’s) two plays that he could go put behind him. If you’re a major-league player you’re going to make adjustments. We’ve got great coaches to help. It was nice to have a bit of a cushion and leave him out there. He’s done so much good, I didn’t want one game to be the highlight of Yohendrick Pinango.”

So, there is help on the way. When can fans expect the Jays cavalry to arrive and return this team to some semblance of what had excited the nation in 2025?

Here are some injury updates from Tuesday: Alejandro Kirk has been here in Toronto the entire homestand. He has caught bullpens, but it’s the torque to the thumb on any swing with intent that has not been tested. The Jays will be better when he returns, likely with Brandon Valenzuela as backup.

Shane Bieber threw two innings in a Florida Complex League game on Monday and will throw three frames next time. He is at least a month away.

Max Scherzer is throwing 30 pitches vs. live hitting, the equivalent of two innings, on the field at Rogers Centre on Wednesday morning. His timing beyond thatr is unclear.

Addison Barger has not yet started a throwing rehab. They miss his arm and his potential as a power bat. Meanwhile, it’s clear that the challenges of the Jays repeating as AL champions are real and they have yet to show it’s a task at which they are capable.