Trouble brews for uneven Blue Jays

Here’s the thing about the Toronto Blue Jays - complacency is their worst enemy right now. The Toronto Blue Jays are still in first place, leading the AL East morass by four-and-a-half games. But the Blue Jays are reeling.

After falling 7-2 to the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday afternoon, they fell for the fourth time in five games. They were shutout twice in a three game series against the St. Louis Cardinals and managed just two runs over their last 18 innings against the vaunted Twinkies.

This is what happens in a baseball season. These aren't the real Toronto Blue Jays but, of course, the team that tore through May wasn’t “real” either.

The stars really need to align for a team to run so hot, as the Jays battered their way to 20 wins in May, powered by the best offense in baseball.

Just as quickly, things can go sideways in the game of baseball, where so many minute details must line up just so.

The Blue Jays’ ability to create runs out of nothing is admirable, but it masks real deficiencies in the lineup. The current, ice-cold edition of the Toronto nine closely resembles the stars and scrubs lineup that was doomed from the start of 2013.

Over the last month, the catching position, center field, and left field all struggled to pull their weight. Despite manager John Gibbons doing best to pull the right levers and rotate players in where they best fit, Juan Francisco, Kevin Pillar, Anthony Gose, Dioner Navarro and Eric Kratz’s struggles were covered up by the big bats in the order. Melky Cabrera's awful May snuck under the radar as Jose Reyes picked up his play. 

When those players cool, as all players eventually do, the result is the ignominious mess the Blue Jays are quickly working to address.

The Jays demoted Pillar to triple-A before Wednesday’s matinee, opting for another long man in the ‘pen before another outfielder, Darrin Mastroianni, joins the club in Baltimore. The same fans hoping to see injured center fielder Colby Rasmus traded now cannot wait for his return.

All Toronto can do for now is wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way. Great outings like the one Phil Hughes turned in Wednesday are bound to happen. The overriding trend is the greater concern. The numbers aren’t the issue, it’s the bad hitters popping up like whack-a-mole, turning in bad at bats and making things too easy on the opposing starter. 

The Blue Jays have time, talent, and a nice division lead. They aren’t sweating, but addressing their more glaring concerns - to say nothing of their razor thin pitching depth - cannot start soon enough.