Toronto Blue Jays Notes: Offence Continues to Struggle, Liriano to Start Monday?

While the Toronto Blue Jays’ defence was horrendous on Friday night, their offence, once again, wasn’t much better.

Looking at the final score, 13-3, you would think the Boston Red Sox thoroughly dismantled the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, which, for the most part, they did.

But while the Red Sox were the far superior team, the Blue Jays plethora of errors certainly didn’t help matters either. Whether it was Melvin Upton Jr.‘s adventures in left field, or Devon Travis bobbling a ground ball that he converts for an out 99 percent of the time, or Michael Saunders having a ball bounce over his head, it was an all-around defensive disaster for the Blue Jays on Friday.

Over the course of a 162-game season every team endures at least one game like this, it’s baseball. Heck, every team goes through a slump at one point or another, too, which is what the Blue Jays are in now.

More from Tip of the Tower

• Cam Phillips making his mark on Toronto Argonauts offence
• Toronto Argonauts: 4 storylines ahead of matchup against Redblacks
• Federico Bernardeschi ready for new challenge with Toronto FC
• Toronto Argonauts overcome Roughriders in entertaining Touchdown Atlantic
• Buffalo Bills: Von Miller drawing inspiration from Bruce Smith

Slumps come, and slumps go. Every sports fan knows this cliché rhetoric, but where slumps become concerning is when bad habits starts to develop and rear their ugly head on a night-to-night basis.

For the Blue Jays, I’d say they’re not quite at that point, but they’re approaching it. Defensively, what we saw Friday night was very uncharacteristic. The lack of runs scored, though? That’s become a bad habit the team has struggled to break for the past month.

Since the All-Star break, the Blue Jays have scored three or less runs in 20 of the 49 games they’ve played, and over their last 10 games they’ve averaged 3.9 runs per game, which is just shy of a full run below their season average of 4.85 runs per game.

Of course, using runs per game as a measurement is very broad, but when you look at the advanced stats, it doesn’t exactly reinvigorate your spirits. Prior to the All-Star break the Blue Jays boasted a .187 ISO, a .334 on-base percentage and a 21.5 percent strikeout rate. Since the All-Star break the Jays have posted a .180 ISO, a .318 on-base percentage and a 22.7 percent strikeout rate.

Again, these are only a few of the many metrics out there you could use to measure the Blue Jays’ offence, but no matter which way you look at it, this offence has been regressing throughout the second half.

Hopefully it’s just a brutal slump that is on its way out, which could be possible given their consistent walk rate, but there is reason for concern.

Liriano Back in the Rotation?

After a pair of relief appearances, it sounds like the Jays are ready to place Francisco Liriano back into their starting rotation, which could move R.A. Dickey‘s next start even further back.

Manager John Gibbons said Liriano was unlikely to be used against the Red Sox and he could start Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

“There’s a chance [Liriano] is going to start Monday, so he probably won’t be used in relief,” said Gibbons. “He might, no guarantees.”

Martin Sits With Sore Knee

Russell Martin sat out Friday’s series opener against the Red Sox with a sore left knee, but the team hopes to have him back for Saturday.

“He’s still pretty sore,” Gibbons said. “We’ll see. We’ll just check each day.”

In the meantime, Dioner Navarro will start in his place.

Next: R.A. Dickey the Odd Man Out in Toronto

Quick Hitters:

The Jays have played exhibition games in Montreal for the past three seasons, and,

according to Jeremy Filosa of 98.5 Sports in Montreal

, the team will play another game there against the Pittsburgh Pirates next spring.