Edwin Encarnacion #25 of the Toronto Blue Jays tosses aside his bat as he pops out to end the first inning during MLB game action against the Chicago White Sox on April 27, 2016 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
The starting pitching was felt to be the Toronto Blue Jays primary concern as they opened the season.
But as the first month draws to a close, it is the surprising struggles of the offence that has bogged down the aspirations of a team many pegged as World Series contenders.
"A swing and a miss" has been a common refrain from Blue Jays broadcasters this year as Toronto's strikeout totals would skyrocket toward historic proportions if left unchecked.
The Chicago White Sox only added to Toronto's misery at Rogers Centre on Wednesday night, when starter Jose Quintana struck out 10 en route to a 4-0 whitewashing and a sweep of the three-game series.
Toronto batters were fanned a total of 13 times, the 11th time in 23 games this season that Toronto has struck out 10 times or more.
That was something Toronto did on just 28 occasions over the 162-game season last year.
The Blue Jays hope to be able to start ironing out the kinks in the batting order this weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla., where they will play a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Jays open with Aaron Sanchez, in search of his second victory, on the mound at Tropicana Field on Friday night opposing Tampa Bay lefty Drew Smyly.
While Toronto tries to soft-sell its hitting issues so early in the season, it is a problem nobody anticipated after the Blue Jays dominated the majors a year ago in most of the key offensive categories.
"Well there's something to be said for putting the ball in play, that's for sure," offered Toronto manager John Gibbons about the team's continued lack of contact having a role in a tepid 10-13 start. "We've got certain guys that put the ball in play but they're sluggers. But we have some guys in the lineup, too, they need to put it in play.
"Nothing good can happen when you're striking out other than maybe staying out of a double play sometimes. But [making contact] would help."
The Blue Jays have struck out 217 times this season, the second-highest tally in the majors, trailing only the Houston Astros, who have fanned 224 times.
That works out to 9.43 strikeouts a game for Toronto's would-be hitters.
If that pace continues, Toronto will not only surpass the franchise record for most strikeouts in a season (1,142, set in 2002) but come close to the major-league record of 1,535 set by the Astros in 2013.
"It's kind of tough to tell," said Toronto catcher Russell Martin, when asked what he thinks the problem has been for Blue Jays hitters.
Martin has been Toronto's primary strikeout offender this season. His four strikeouts in four at-bats against Chicago on Wednesday raised his total to 29. His batting average is .143.
Josh Donaldson has struck out 25 times, but the team is willing to live with that seeing how its all-star third baseman is hitting .297 and leading the team in home runs (seven), and runs batted in (19).
Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki each has 24 strikeouts. Jose Bautista has 20.
"Right now I'm just trying to get myself going," Martin said. "I feel like you just got to keep grinding. There are times in the season where it feels like everything's going against you. You just got to keep your chin up and keep plugging away.
"Everybody's just got to take care of themselves, make sure they have good at bats and keep battling out there."
In Wednesday's game, Toronto starter Marco Estrada was pitching a shutout into the seventh inning when Chicago broke through for three runs.
Estrada, 1-2, was manipulating his right throwing shoulder throughout the game as though it might be bothering him.
Afterward, the 32-year-old conveyed mixed messages about his health.
"I don't know, it didn't feel very good," Estrada said when asked if his shoulder was okay. After a pause, he added: "I don't want to talk about it."
Later on he insisted: "I'll be fine."
Estrada, 13-8 for Toronto a year ago, threw 118 pitches, the third time in his career he has thrown that many pitches in a game but the earliest in a season his count has been that high.
Gibbons played dumb when asked if everything was all right with Estrada's shoulder.
"I don't know anything about that," Gibbons said.