Having your closer give up a go-ahead grand slam in late innings is a bad look. But the fact that Jeff Hoffman was in that position in the first place — a tied game in the eighth inning — says a lot about the Toronto Blue Jays at the moment.

In case you missed it, the Blue Jays dropped another game on Saturday night, a 6-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Blue Jays’ 12th loss in their last 15 games. Wins have been scarce for Toronto as of late, and although they fought back to tie the game, it never felt like victory was within their grasp.

However, all anyone could talk about was Hoffman’s poor showing against the D-backs. It started as a single, single, walk, then a grand slam, which made it 6-2 Diamondbacks. In the words of the great philosopher Ronald Joseph Aaron Burgundy: “That escalated quickly.”

It was the second rough appearance in a row by Hoffman, the last being his nearly catastrophic game this past Tuesday in Milwaukee. He allowed three walks, leaving the bases loaded with two outs, then Louis Varland secured the final out and sent the game to extra innings.

Not that Hoffman should be let off the hook completely, but that was his 10th game since Opening Day, and the last two have been pretty bad. Up until that point, the 33-year-old had been on a roll and is still striking out 41.7% of batters faced.

Everyone in the ballpark knew Hoffman was throwing a heater in that 3-1 count to Corbin Carroll, and credit to the Dbacks outfielder for putting a good swing on it. But this week, Hoffman has been nickel-and-dimed to death with a parade of soft singles. The hard contact isn’t there, but unfortunately for Hoffman, neither has pitch control.

So yes, it’s been a bad week for Hoffman. However, it’s been an even worse week for the Blue Jays lineup. Hoffman is the least of the Blue Jays’ concerns at the moment; their lifeless offense is the much greater cause for worry.

Let’s talk about the fact that the Blue Jays had 11 (!!!) singles in a game and scored two runs. Last night was only the tenth time in franchise history that the Blue Jays have posted 11 or more singles, scored two or fewer runs, and lost the game – hat tip to Stathead, the full list is here for those masochists who wish to peruse.

The Blue Jays are dealing with key injuries to their lineup, with George Springer and Addison Barger on the IL, and now Daulton Varsho is dealing with left knee discomfort. But there is very little slugging being done by this lineup; it’s mostly been a station-to-station offense, dependent on singles, sacrifice bunts and praying to the Baseball Gods.

It’s been an interesting tale of the tape with two very different offensive approaches, with the Diamondbacks leading baseball with a 9% extra-base hit percentage and ranking second in MLB with 41% of their hits going for extra bases. The Blue Jays are in the bottom-third of baseball with a 6.6% extra-base hit percentage, and only 30% of their hits have been for extra bases, which is tied for third-worst.

The Blue Jays are continuing their reputation from last season as one of the toughest lineups to strike out, as they have the lowest K rate in baseball at 18.4%, but at what cost? Instead, they’ve morphed into a team that gets itself out with weak contact and a lack of extra-base power.

Per the Statcast Bat Tracking Leaderboard, the Blue Jays rank 25th in hard-hit rate, 28th in barrels per plate appearance, and 27th in average exit velocity. Although it’s a slightly different cast of characters from last year, this is a far departure from last year’s Blue Jays as one of the biggest offensive juggernauts in baseball.

To circle back to Hoffman for a second, the reason he was thrust into a tied game in a non-save situation was that John Schneider has had few opportunities to deploy Hoffman with a lead, and Hoffman needed to get work in, regardless of whether it was a save situation. If your closer isn’t getting work, that’s either a great sign or a terrible sign.

When the lineup cannot score runs, it puts pressure on the pitching staff to be nearly perfect. Lack of offense also magnifies fielding errors and baserunning blunders, which the Blue Jays have been quite familiar with through their first 20 games of the season.

Hoffman “technically” cost the Blue Jays the win in Arizona last night, but had it not been for an offense that could’ve picked him up for more than two measly runs, maybe the lineup could have battled back to make it interesting. Instead, it was another tepid performance: 11 singles, one extra-base hit, two runs, and a 13th loss of the season for the Blue Jays.

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