Astros ace Hunter Brown sizzles in striking out nine Blue Jays hitters

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Facing the nastiness of Astros starter Hunter Brown, Monday was always going to be a tough ask for the Blue Jays offence to break out into some semblance of credible production.

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But the longer the ineptitude lingers — against good pitchers or bad — the more the benign Jays attack becomes an ongoing concern for the suddenly slumping team.

For the 11th time this season, the Jays were held to three runs or fewer, this time getting blanked and blown out at Houston’s Daikin Park, a 7-0 loss to the Astros in what was a half-hearted start to a six-game road trip for the visitors.

It was a third consecutive loss for the Jays, who fell to 12-11 and slipped into third place in the American League East. Their 86 runs are by far the fewest in the division as the big bats remain silent.

Facing Houston right-hander Brown and his skimpy 1.50 ERA, the Jays managed just a pair of hits all night — a pair of harmless singles that are a familiar output on too many occasions this season.

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With their own ace on the mound in Kevin Gausman, the Jays were engaged in an impressive pitching duel — until the Astros’ fifth, anyway. The bottom of the Astros order got to Gausman with a pair of singles and a double part of a five-hit, four-running inning that as good as ended it for the Jays.

The frustration is clearly building for Toronto hitters — or should be, given what’s unfolding.

With just 12 home runs thus far, the Jays are ranked 29th in the majors, ahead of the Royals with only 11. That’s clearly a putrid pace for an offence that has been in a steady regression for going on five seasons now.

The group that banged out 262 homers in 2021 now feels like a distant memory.

Facing an elite pitcher in Brown, who was firing his best stuff on Monday, the Jays had next to nothing against the righty who blitzed them with nine strikeouts through his seven innings, and two hits allowed.

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The closest thing the Jays mustered to a “rally” was a leadoff single by George Springer, who then promptly stole both second and third, but could be advanced no further.

HEAVY LIFTING

It’s clear that the Blue Jays don’t want to have any part of trotting out whatever constitutes as their fifth starter for any of the three games against the Yankees in New York this weekend.

With that in mind, manager John Schneider has opted for a four-man rotation in the short term. To start that process, Easton Lucas, who was beat up badly by the Mariners on Sunday at the Rogers Centre, was demoted to triple-A Buffalo on Monday.

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With an off-day on Thursday, the top four can at least operate on four days rest. Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis will finish off the three-gamer in Houston, setting up the Jose Berrios-Gausman-Bassitt trio for the Yankees.

Following Sunday’s loss to Seattle, Schneider hinted the team would consider Lucas for another start, but upon further review, that plan was temporarily scrapped. The manager did acknowledge the shortened rotation will be in effect for just one run through the rotation.

In many ways, Jays starters have been carrying the team to a credible record thus far. Off-days or not, it’s early to be forced to go down to four as the lack of starting depth is exposed yet again.

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