Struggles at the plate continue in Royals loss

Limiting the opposition to three runs or fewer is generally a winning strategy, but that wasn’t the case for the Blue Jays Wednesday night in Kansas City as they suffered a second straight 3-2 loss to the Royals.

The frustratingly feeble Jays offence failed to produce more than five runs for the 16th consecutive game, their longest such streak in 16 years. They didn’t help themselves by going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, dropping their team average in such situations to an embarrassing .199 for the season.

While hitting is hard, putting players in their best positions to succeed is not. And the Jays didn’t do that in the sixth inning, when they had a great opportunity to at least tie the game.

Trailing 3-1, Daulton Varsho led off with a single and Danny Jansen followed with a walk against lefthander Angel Zerpa, putting the tying runs on base with nobody out and Daniel Vogelbach coming to the plate.

Vogelbach had not had a plate appearance against a left-hander this season and didn’t get a hit against a southpaw all of last year, but with Justin Turner and Davis Schneider on the bench, he was sent to the plate against Zerpa and struck out.

Turner’s .690 OPS against righties is better than the overall numbers put up by George Springer, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., and Schneider is hitting righties better than he is left-handers.

After a wild pitch moved the runners up, Ernie Clement followed with a run-scoring groundout and Addison Barger struck out to end the inning.

The Jays didn’t have another batter reach base in the game other than Turner, who pinch-hit for Clement in the ninth (against righthander James McArthur) and singled.

Rookie Yariel Rodriguez pitched into the fifth inning for the first time, but did not record an out in the inning. He allowed all three runs and was hung with the loss.