Reinforcements fall short in Jays’ shutout loss to Cleveland

With all that ails the Toronto Blue Jays – and the list is lengthy, based on the first six weeks of the Major League Baseball season – the club's reliance on Triple-A reinforcements continues to be an issue.

For Tuesday night's game at Rogers Centre against the Cleveland Indians, Mike Bolsinger made his first start of the season for Toronto on the same day he was summoned from the ranks of the Buffalo Bisons, the Blue Jays' top minor-league affiliate.

Bolsinger would be throwing to Mike Ohlman, who was behind the plate for the Blue Jays, but the pair did not require any formal introductions.

Ohlman was making his major-league debut after getting called up the day before as a roster replacement for regular catcher Russell Martin, who landed on the 10-day disabled list with a shoulder issue.

The 26-year-old was hitting .246 for the Bisons and was leading the club with seven home runs. He will be the backup to Luke Maile, who is also up from Buffalo.

And if Ohlman or Bolsinger needed to seek out advice from any other recent Triple-A expats in the Toronto starting lineup, they only had to holler over to second base to Chris Coghlan, who was stationed over there to give a bit of a break to the struggling bat of Devon Travis.

Coghlan also started the season in Buffalo but was promoted in mid-April following a calf injury to Josh Donaldson.

Order in a plate of Buffalo chicken wings and the trio would have felt right at home.

Nothing personal against Bolsinger, Ohlman and Coghlan, but they are hardly the pedigree of Martin, Donaldson, Aaron Sanchez and J.A. Happ, whose injury woes have torpedoed the start of the 2017 season for Toronto.

The Blue Jays entered play on Tuesday with the second-worst record in the American League. Their makeshift lineup was unable to make any headway against the Indians (18-14), who defeated Toronto (12-21) 6-0 in a rather tepid affair played out before more than 32,000 at Rogers Centre.

The Blue Jays' anemic offence could only muster three hits over seven leisurely innings put in by Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco, who had seven strikeouts along the cakewalk.

The good news for Toronto: Jose Bautista, who came into the game batting a meagre .169, broke out of an ugly 0-for-21 skid at the plate with a single to centre in the seventh.

But the club deserves at least some credit for a recent upswing in its play, in spite of all the injuries. A 4-2 win over Cleveland in the opener of the three-game series on Monday was the Blue Jays' sixth in their past nine outings.

Tuesday's setback was compounded by the loss of designated hitter Kendrys Morales, who exited the game in the seventh inning with what the club is calling left hamstring tightness.

But some help appears to be on the horizon.

Toronto manager John Gibbons said before the game that Sanchez, who has been battling blister and fingernail issues, threw about 60 pitches at the club's training facility in Dunedin, Fla., earlier in the day.

He said that Sanchez came out of that activity feeling fine and that all indications is that he will come off the disabled list and return to the Blue Jays in time to start Sunday's game against the Seattle Mariners.

And starting shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, out since April 22 with a bad hamstring, is set the begin a short minor-league rehab assignment likely this weekend, meaning he could conceivably be back with the big-league club some time next week.

Apart from a little wildness, Bolsinger acquitted himself just fine in his Blue Jays debut.

He walked two Cleveland batters in the second inning and both would come in to score to provide the Indians with a 2-0 lead.

Lonnie Chisenhall cashed the first run when he stroked a double to the power alley in left-centre. Yandy Diaz brought in the second on a fielder's choice.

Bolsinger would hang in to pitch 5.2-innings, allowing just the two runs off three hits while striking out four and walking four.

Now leading 3-0, Cleveland put this one to bed in the eighth, where the Indians tagged Toronto reliever Aaron Loup for three runs, all courtesy of a three-run home run shot off the bat of Yan Gomes.