Blue Jays trending down, below .500
Toronto falls 3-1 to visiting Oakland
TORONTO — The numbers are looking worse with each game as the losses keep piling up for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The latest defeat, a 3-1 decision to the Oakland Athletics on Friday night, left Toronto under the .500 mark for the first time since late March.
The Blue Jays (22-23) have lost 10 of 13 at home, six of eight overall and 11 of their last 16.
“If we’re pitching, we’re not hitting. If we’re hitting, we’re not pitching,” said Toronto starter Marco Estrada. “Whereas before, we were kind of doing everything right.
“Plain and simple, we’ve just got to play a little bit better.”
The Athletics pulled ahead with a pair of runs off Estrada in the seventh inning. Reliever Danny Coloumbe (1-1) worked 1 1/3 innings for the victory and Blake Treinen recorded the last four outs for his ninth save.
Dustin Fowler scored twice and had two of Oakland’s nine hits as the Athletics improved to 5-3 on their 10-game road trip. Oakland (23-22) has won four of its last five games.
The teams will continue the four-game set over the weekend. By dropping the first two games, Toronto will extend its string of consecutive winless series to six.
The Blue Jays managed six hits in all and struck out a season-high 15 times.
Fowler took Estrada (2-4) deep in the third inning for the first home run of his big-league career.
Estrada was a strike away from getting out of the seventh inning unscathed. Instead Chad Pinder, Fowler and Josh Phegley hit consecutive doubles to push two runs across.
Toronto threatened in the eighth as Justin Smoak walked and Yangervis Solarte hit a two-out single. But Treinen came on and struck out Kevin Pillar.