It’s all bad for Blue Jays right now

Depair continues to pile up in desert as Hoffman falters again and power bats nowhere to be found

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Published Apr 19, 2026  •  4 minute read

Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., centre, beats Arizona Diamondbacks' Adrian Del Castillo (25) to first base for the out as Blue Jays starting pitcher Max Scherzer and umpire Roberto Ortiz look on during the first inning on Saturday, April 18, 2026, in Phoenix. Photo by Ross D. Franklin /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

When it rains, it pours, and right now the Blue Jays are in the middle of a blinding rainstorm.

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The Jays dropped their fourth in a row, this one by a 6-2 score to the host Arizona Diamondbacks in a game the Jays were at least starting to think their luck might be changing.

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A 12-hit night, even if 11 of them were singles, may not have been the breakout bat night this club was hoping for, but it was an improvement over where they have been of late.

Six strong innings from Max Scherzer were another reason for optimism as Scherzer matched his longest and almost best night of the season thus far. In his personal 2026 debut, Scherzer also went six, allowing the visiting Rockies a single run in his only win of the year.

Even the defence, which has been rather suspect of late, held up with just a single error to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who admittedly made a handful of other plays to more than compensate for that one mistake.

The Jays entered the bottom of the eighth tied at two and, having just scored the tying run on a Kazuma Okamoto single that plated Eloy Jimenez, momentum appeared to be on their side.

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Faced with the choice between Louis Varland and supposed closer Jeff Hoffman to hold things steady in the eighth, Jays manager John Schneider opted for Hoffman.

The move backfired in a big way as Hoffman did not retire a batter until the fifth Diamondback came to the plate. Singles to No. 8 and 9 hitters Ildemaro Vargas and Alek Thomas were followed by a walk to Ketel Marte and then a grand slam by Corbin Carroll that ultimately decided the game. It was Hoffman’s second loss of the season, to go along with three blown saves in five save opportunities.

Numbers like that tend to get the attention of a fan base, and Jays Nation is howling right now for change.

Post-game, Schneider insisted he is standing by Hoffman and his role as the Jays’ closer.

It’s just one more area the Jays skipper has to worry about adding to the list of injury woes, a lack of hitting with men in scoring position and suddenly leaky defence.

At some point this storm has to break.

ONE MYSTERY EXPLAINED

Nathan Lukes’ struggles through the first three weeks of the season have now been explained. Turns out, Lukes, until his 3-for-5 night on Saturday, was in a hitting funk because he was dealing with a case of vertigo. It explains a lot. Imagine trying to hit a darting baseball travelling at roughly 95 miles an hour while you weren’t seeing straight. Once established that vertigo was the issue, Lukes and the Jays went to work attacking the problem and based on Saturday’s turnaround have figured something out.

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His three-hit night Saturday bumped his average to .162 which doesn’t sound great, but is still a lot better than the .094 he began the night hitting.

THE GOOD KIND OF RELIEF

Ignoring for the moment the relief effort that wasn’t out of the bullpen Saturday evening, there was some positive relief in that Blue Jays dugout Saturday night.

It came with a two-hit night for Okamoto, who is desperately trying to adjust to what major league pitchers are doing to him since a pretty hot start.

Okamoto seems to be getting a pretty much steady diet of off speed offerings since he showed opposing pitchers what he can do with just about any fastball. The results have been disturbing for a club that needs Okamoto’s bat to at least offset some of the loss of Bo Bichette’s talent in the batter’s box.

Okamoto’s first hit of the night was an excuse me single poked through the hole on the right side of the infield, but it was his second hit of the night in which he lined a single sharply into left that had hitting coach David Popkins hammering the padding on the dugout railing in appreciation of the knock.

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It’s no secret confidence is a huge part of hitting and Okamoto needed a little as he entered the game on a 2-for-27 skid.

It got the Japanese slugger back over the Mendoza line (a .200 average) so it’s a start but Popkins knows he has to get the third baseman hitting with power, something he has done his whole career in Japan, if Okamoto is going to earn the $30-million deal he signed in the off-season.

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   Breaking down John Schneider’s epic rant - and what’s behind the Blue Jays’ rocky start

QUICK HITS: Quite the night in the field for Guerrero Jr. He went from making an outstanding over-the shoulder catch in rather deep right field to committing his second error of the year when he failed to make the transfer ahead of a pitch to a covering Max Scherzer at the first base bag … Centre fielder Daulton Varsho sat out Saturday’s game after pulling himself from Friday’s loss after the second inning. Varsho has some left knee discomfort and is considered day to day but the fact that the injury wasn’t serious enough to warrant an MRI suggests a return sooner than later … Scherzer looking more like the Scherzer from last year’s playoffs has to be some relief for the Jays who are still waiting on a trio of starters to return from the disabled list. Yes, the ERA is still 7.16 but he looked in control Saturday night and showed no signs of the tendonitis that hampered him two starts ago.

UP NEXT

It’s up to Kevin Gausman to prevent the sweep on Sunday afternoon. The Jays ace is still looking for his first win of the year but has pitched well and owns a 2.42 ERA and has struck out 31 over in his 22 1/3 innings of work. He’ll go up against right-hander Ryne Nelson (1-1, 3.54 ERA) in a 4:10 p.m. start.

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