Toronto’s season is down to its final thin thread after a 4-3 loss to Baltimore on Monday, a night that brought another costly home run, another injury concern and a return that arrived far later than anyone in the clubhouse would have drawn it up.
The Blue Jays fell to 77-80 and now trail the White Sox, 80-76, by 3 1/2 games for the American League’s last Wild Card position. Chicago owns the tiebreaker, leaving Toronto with what amounts to 4 1/2 games to recover while it has five games left and the White Sox have six.
Quick facts
- Baltimore beat Toronto 4-3 in the series opener.
- Pete Alonso hit two homers, including his 40th of the season.
- Trey Yesavage returned from left-knee meniscus surgery and worked two innings.
- Yesavage struck out three and threw 40 pitches in his first start since Aug. 4.
- Toronto also lost Brett Bateman to an injury and remains without Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The Blue Jays can be eliminated from postseason contention as soon as Tuesday. With their chances now barely visible, the club may soon choose caution with veterans carrying physical issues rather than press them through the final days.
Yesavage’s return provided one of the few encouraging notes. The right-hander opened by striking out Dylan Beavers on his splitter, a quick reminder of the swing-and-miss stuff Toronto has lacked while he was sidelined.
He allowed only Alonso’s solo homer across two innings, finishing with three strikeouts. Should the Blue Jays remain alive into the last weekend, he could potentially be stretched to three or four innings against Cincinnati.
Manager John Schneider looked back at a rotation that appeared crowded in spring training, when Toronto had nine starting options and the debate centered on selecting five. Instead, injuries kept arriving, beginning with Cody Ponce going down after 2 1/3 innings, while Yesavage’s knee problem became another unexpected disruption.
Schneider said the club had been hit by an unusually harsh run of setbacks, particularly with multiple pitchers unavailable at the same time.
Toronto’s bullpen matchup in the eighth made sense on paper. Mason Fluharty had handled the lower part of Baltimore’s order and was set to face Beavers, a left-handed hitter, before Alonso came up with a runner aboard.
Schneider called for Tyler Rogers, but Alonso drove the submarine right-hander’s offering out to right field for a two-run shot. It was Alonso’s second homer of the game and only the second Rogers has surrendered in 2026.
Rogers permitted just one long ball during the 2025 season, making Alonso’s damage all the more unusual. The 40-homer season also made Alonso the first Orioles player to reach that mark since Anthony Santander hit 44 in 2024.
Santander is now with Toronto, but has not played this season while recovering from shoulder surgery. On a night when the Blue Jays needed every available hand and every clean inning, the absences and late damage again told the story.
