By Canadian Press

Rock bottom: Jays head into road trip hoping to stop the bleeding

Sep 14, 2016 | 12:45 PM

TORONTO — Marco Estrada’s words were confident and optimistic, but the soft tone of the Toronto right-hander’s voice and glum look on his face told a different story as he tried to explain the Blue Jays’ recent skid that continued Wednesday with a demoralizing 8-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Our team morale is still high, guys are picking everybody else up every inning,” Estrada said following the loss that knocked Toronto down to third place in the American League East.

“It’s just hard to explain this,” Estrada continued, his gaze often finding the floor as TV cameras flashed brightly on his face. “I guess when things are going bad they stay there for a bit. But the good thing is we can only go up from here. I know things are going to change. I know time is running out but things are going to change. We’re too good for it not to.”

The loss capped a 2-4 stint at Rogers Centre that included a crucial series loss to the Boston Red Sox last weekend.

September has been a disaster for the Jays, who opened the month with four series losses for the first time this season. They have won just three of their last 12 games and are two games behind Boston for first place in the AL East after the Red Sox fell 1-0 to Baltimore Wednesday night. Toronto had held sole possession of the division lead as recently as Sept. 5.

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“I’ve got to believe we’re rock bottom,” manager John Gibbons said. “I don’t see how much lower it can go. So I’m optimistic that this will turn and turn in a hurry.”

The Blue Jays will need it to if they hope to make a second straight post-season appearance.

Toronto begins what could be a tough seven-game West Coast road trip Thursday in Los Angeles followed by a three-game stop in Seattle.

The lowly Angels, behind the power of Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, won two of three games against the Jays at Rogers Centre in August. The Mariners, meanwhile, are not far removed from an AL wild-card spot and took two of three at Toronto in July.

Estrada (8-9) dominated the first three innings Wednesday, retiring the first nine Rays he faced and setting a franchise record by opening the game with five straight strikeouts. But as the game wore on, the Blue Jays’ struggles began peeking through. 

They managed just two hits on the day — matching a season-low — while giving up 13. They failed to score more than three runs for the 21st time in their last 41 games.

Estrada maintained that despite the Blue Jays’ current state, no one in the clubhouse has given up — not yet, anyway. 

“We’re fighting. We’re fighting for sure,” he said. “I don’t think anybody’s down. Not yet. But we need to turn this around before anybody does get down.”

It’s all part of the game, he said.

“But it seems worse because we’re all struggling right now,” he said. “It’s kind of been a snowball effect, we just have to stop it. We have to find a way to do it. Nothing’s been working out lately.”

Asked if his team was pressing at the plate in light of their recent struggles, Gibbons replied: “naturally, yeah.”

“That’s the way the game works. It’s human nature,” he continued. “They’re all trying to do good, trying to come through, get the big hit, the big out, things like that and it starts snowballing.”

Also concerning for the Blue Jays is the recent absence of Josh Donaldson. The reigning AL MVP sat out Wednesday’s game, his third straight, with a hip injury.

He had an MRI Wednesday and will travel with the team to L.A. Describing the injury as a gradual thing that suddenly intensified, Donaldson couldn’t say when or how it happened.

The all-star third baseman said it’s been tough to sit out while the team is scuffling. But he also insisted he didn’t feel a sense of panic. 

“We have a lot of players in this locker-room that are very good and we believe in each other and we believe we’re going to right the ship,” Donaldson said. “We have 18 games left and hopefully we’ll finish strong in those 18.”

NOTES: Estrada allowed four runs on four hits with three walks and seven strikeouts through 5 1/3 innings. … Alex Cobb (1-0), in his third start since returning from Tommy John surgery, allowed one run on just two his through 6 2/3 innings and Corey Dickerson drove in four runs for the Rays (62-83). … Edwin Encarnacion had a sac fly for the Blue Jays (79-66), while Devon Travis extended his hit streak to 11 games, matching a career high. … The Blue Jays announced during the game that they had hired former Red Sox executive Ben Cherington as their new vice president of baseball operations.

Melissa Couto, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected version of an earlier story. The Blue Jays were not 2-6 at Rogers Centre as previously stated, but 2-4.