Former Blue Jay Dioner Navarro celebrates after hitting a two-run triple in the seventh inning.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
You have starting pitcher R.A. Dickey struggling through another dismal April and reliever Brett Cecil blowing up practically every time he toes the rubber late in games.
The offence, while showing recent signs of having a pulse, has been mostly so-so, and the club continues to have an aversion to playing .500 baseball.
Sounds like the first month of the season for the Toronto Blue Jays.
It also sounds like the Blue Jays from a year ago, when they would manage to shake themselves out of the early season doldrums and power their way into the playoffs for the first time in more than two decades.
So for those fans who already have their angst meters switched on high over a season that is not yet even a month old, the Blue Jays are advising to sit back and take a deep breath. Maybe take a sip on that umbrella drink.
It's not time to panic – at least not yet.
"If there's panic out there, I don't quite understand that," Toronto manager John Gibbons said prior to the Blue Jays game Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox. "Who's going to quit? Where I come from, nobody quits."
That was the composed Gibbons speaking.
Several hours later, Gibbons was anything but composed, getting tossed from the game in the seventh inning where things turned suddenly awry for the Blue Jays in a 4-0 Chicago victory.
With the win at Rogers Centre, the White Sox (16-6) swept the three-game series from Toronto (10-13).
It was a well-pitched game by the starters, with Marco Estrada of the Jays and Chicago lefty Jose Quintana stringing up zeros across the board heading into the seventh inning.
There it fell apart for Estrada, who allowed a triple off the bat of Dioner Navarro with two runners aboard that lifted Chicago in front 2-0.
For the former Blue Jays catcher, who is not exactly fleet of foot, it was his first triple since Sept. 27, 2012, when he played for the Cincinnati Reds.
Jesse Chavez was brought in from the bullpen and he immediately surrendered a triple off the bat of Austin Jackson that made it 3-0 for Chicago.
With Adam Eaton now at bat for the White Sox, Gibbons – who had been having a running commentary with home-plate umpire John Tumpane for several innings – was ejected as he stood inside the Toronto dugout.
When you compare the Blue Jays over the first 22 games of the season in 2016 to the club from last year over the same time span, the similarities are startling.
Both teams, for instance, sported 10-12 records and in 2015 that was good enough for fifth place in the American League East for the Blue Jays, three games back of the front-running New York Yankees.
Heading into Wednesday's game against the White Sox, that mark was good enough for fourth place in the A.L. East for Toronto, 2½-games back of the Baltimore Orioles.
The pitching from a year ago was still in a bit of flux, both in the rotation and in the bullpen, where Roberto Osuna was just starting to leave his imprint as a quality reliever.
Overall, the pitching staff had a collective earned run average of 4.96 compared to 4.00 this season, where the work of the starting five has, for the most part, been Toronto's strong suit.
From an offensive perspective, the Blue Jays were hitting .249 as a team in 2015 with 28 home runs after 22 games compared to the .242 with 23 home runs from this year.
"We've always been pretty much a slow-starting team," Dickey said. "It takes us a little bit to find our rhythm it seems. And that's the same for me in particular.
"Nobody in here's panicking and we've got the players in here to do it."
Before the Chicago game, the Blue Jays recalled right-handed pitcher Ryan Tepera from their Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo. To make room on the roster, switch-pitcher Pat Venditte was optioned to the Bisons.
Quintana has always been a difficult chore for Toronto, having gone 4-2 in seven career starts with a 1.88 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 48 innings pitched.
And Wednesday night was no different, giving Toronto hitters fits once again, especially Jose Bautista, who seemed rather taken aback with the strike zone of Tumpane.
The Toronto right-fielder struck out in each of his first three appearances against Quintana with runners in scoring position, twice looking at pitches that appeared within the strike zone.
Quintana (3-1) earned the win after blanking Toronto on four hits while striking out 10 over six innings.
Estrada (1-2) suffered the loss, allowing three runs off three hits over 6.2 innings.