Blue Jays hit three home runs before imploding in a lopsided loss

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Just when it appeared everything was going right for the Blue Jays, suddenly everything went so wrong.

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Through three innings at the Rogers Centre on Wednesday night, the Jays were leading 6-0 on the strength of  three home runs,

A repeat performance of Tuesday’s blowout win seemed inevitable until the wheels came off in the middle innings with the Jays reverting back to their sloppy brand of defence and their pitching turning porous, as the Cincinnati Reds pushed across 11 consecutive runs en route to an 11-7 victory.

On an evening dubbed Youth Baseball Night, many of the kids among the announced crowd of 27,057 must have aged quite rapidly watching the carnage. This was ugly and totally inexcusable, prompting fans to boo the home side, which seemed fitting given the train wreck that had unfolded.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got the start at third base for the second game in a row, and on the few plays he had to make, showed off his rocket of an arm when throwing to first base.

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Too bad no one had him pitch from the mound. He could not have done worse than the anemic bullpen arms the Jays had to send to the hill.

On the offensive side, the Jays hit three homers in the early going — one each from Ernie Clement, Spencer Horwitz and George Springer, who led off the game with his 17th of the year after going deep twice in Tuesday’s win.

Meanwhile, Davis Schneider finally broke off an 0-for-26 drought with a fourth-inning single to centre.

In fairness, Toronto did attempt to mount some kind of rally when it had runners on first and second with one out in the home half of the seventh inning. But both Addison Barger and Schneider struck out swinging to end that threat.

They tried again in the ninth with Guerrero hitting a lead off single — his only hit of the night — and eventually scoring on a Leo Jimenez double off the wall in right.

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PLEADING THE FIFTH

Wednesday’s fifth inning could be neatly summed up as wretched, at least for those fans of the Jays who saw the Reds send 11 men to the plate and score five runs to take a 7-6 lead.

It began with ex-Jay Santiago Espinal reaching base on a line drive into centre field. He came back up for a second time and walked before Will Benson struck out to mercifully end things.

For the seemingly endless inning, the Reds wracked up four hits, three stolen bases and a walk. There was also a wild pitch and a hit batsman by the Jays and an error to Jimenez who dropped a routine throw from Vladdy at second on a botched forceout.

DE LA CRUZ CONTROL

Even Jays fans had to be impressed on this night with De La Cruz, the Reds’ 22-year-old superstar shortstop.

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After striking out in the first inning, then being thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double in the fourth, the 6-foot-5 De La Cruz went into high gear.

He singled home the first two runs of the fifth-inning uprising, went to second on a wild pitch, then stole third — his 60th swipe of the season. The bag made him just the fifth player since 1901 to steal 60 bases and hit 20 home runs in a season, joining Rickey Henderson, Ronald Acuna Jr., Eric Davis and Joe Morgan. Maury Wills set the single-season record for a shortstop when he stole 104 bases in 1961.

With one out, the Jays infield moved in, looking to cut down the speedy Reds runner at the plate. Tyler Stephenson obliged with a sharply hit ground right at Clement at short. But the De La Cruz still scored on a head-first slide, his speed forcing Clement to hurry his throw, which was just wide of catcher Brian Serven.

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Having just given the Jays a taste of his speed, De La Cruz showed off his power in the eighth with his 22nd homer.

All told, De La Cruz went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, three RBIs and a steal.

Y-ROD FAILED

In his 14th start of the season, Yariel Rodriguez wasn’t able to make it out of the fifth inning for one simple reason — his pitch count was high. When he left the game with one out in the fifth, Rodriguez had tossed 87 pitches, the second most he’s tossed in a game.

In his previous start against the host Chicago Cubs, he threw 88 pitches in five complete innings.

The Jays, meanwhile, have decided to push their starters back a day.

Chris Bassitt was scheduled to start Thursday when the L.A. Angels come to town for a four-game series. But as of Wednesday night, the Jays had yet to determine who get the ball in the series opener.

Following their four-game set against the Angels, the Jays will be in Boston where Monday the teams will play a doubleheader, featuring the resumption of a late June game that was suspended because of rain.

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