Two hundred thirty-three thousand, two hundred eighty minutes. That’s the number of minutes in a standard Major League Baseball season. How would you measure the Blue Jays’ 2024 season? In strikeouts, in base hits? In home runs, in Starbucks runs? How about a heart-aching series against the New York Mets? 

Toronto’s three-game set against the surging New York Mets was always going to be an uphill battle. One was a team with big October aspirations and the other was very much re-constructing its future identity. Coming out on top of this series for the Blue Jays wasn’t exactly the expectation. 
However, Canada’s team also lost three straight series in a row against strong playoff contenders both on the road and at home. They desperately needed a feel-good series win to have some semblance of hope. Alas, baseball gods had another cruel plan as the team returned home to kick off their six-game home stand. 
Blue Jays’ offence carried over their scoring woes at home as they faced New York’s starting pitching dark horse, Tylor Megill, for the first game of the series. Rookie Spencer Horwitz hadn’t lost his mojo at the plate but his hot bat wasn’t enough to provide enough run support. Several players in the lineup couldn’t pull in scoring runs. Because of the continued offensive droughts, the home team was in much trouble when reliever Tommy Nance couldn’t find a way to get out of trouble against the Mets after its infield defence made an unfortunately sloppy play. That proved to be the difference maker and Toronto inevitably fell to New York with the score of 3-2. 
The second game of the series was a saving grace for the Blue Jays as the lineup took advantage of Mets’ starting pitcher David Peterson rather successfully. Their balls found gaps and made New York’s infielders and outfielders make mistakes they would regret by the end of the game. Once Toronto got on base and cashed in their baserunners, they came out of the game with the score of 6-2, playing with New York’s National League Wild Card race in the process.
As the Mets and Blue Jays evenly split the series, it all came down to the last game of the series on Wednesday to decide everything. With both teams feeling much of the burden to prove themselves, lineups on either side couldn’t muster up productive hits. Thankfully, the Blue Jays’ offence managed to score the first run of the game as young starting pitcher Bowden Francis held the Mets’ offence at bay quite smoothly. 
While both offences didn’t provide much entertainment for much of the game, Francis was once again on his way to flirt with history as he retired New York’s batters one by one. He may have surrendered a few walks, but the Mets continued to come up blank as Francis dominated on the mound. Toronto’s defence, both in the infield and outfield, put out their best performances to help Francis’ case in making another no-hit bid.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Davis Schneider with an outstanding catch at the wall to keep the hit column empty!
Is that &quot;The Play&quot;? 🤨 <a href="https://t.co/ZbIlpwHGCH">pic.twitter.com/ZbIlpwHGCH</a>
&mdash; MLB (@MLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1833965162195485094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 11, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Francis came out again at the top of the ninth inning to get another shot at making Blue Jays history. His no-hit bid was still intact as he prepared to face switch-hitting sensation Francisco Lindor. They say that once Lindor gets going, things fall in place for the Mets. And that’s exactly what happened when Lindor lobbed the baseball out of the young right-hander. Lindor hit a home run off Francis to not only break his no-hitter but also tie the game.
Toronto’s starting pitcher walked off the mound after surrendering a home run to turn it over to seasoned reliever Chad Green. What followed for the Blue Jays was nothing but ugly. Green struggled to secure any outs and gave chances for Mets’ hitters to threaten a comeback. In the end, the veteran reliever was responsible for giving up four earned runs against New York and fellow reliever Génesis Cabrera was also charged with one earned run as the Mets paid the Blue Jays back with the score of 6-2. 
With an agonizing loss on Wednesday, the Blue Jays had lost four series in a row, but much of their season consisted of excruciating losses, even at their best. They have always been in a position to lose a game, even when everything else helped them win more games. 
If anything, this three-game stretch offered a perfect snapshot of the frustratingly torturous season for Toronto. The peaks and valleys the Blue Jays dugout experienced all year were condensed into these 72 hours. The team witnessed an anemic offence’s resurrection, messy defence, mini-scoring fest, cleaner defence, better-than-expected pitching performances and yet another no-hit bid within those three days. Toronto flashed their capability and made a case for their young, unproven talents in these three games, even if the end results were bittersweet at best. 
The Blue Jays’ heartwrenching experience against the Mets was akin to their struggles against the Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. It was reminiscent of missed opportunities and wasted potential, yet some promising and joyful moments in the series gave a delusional sense of hope.
So, how do you measure this Blue Jays’ season with yet another crushing series loss? It can be in heartbreaks, passion, wistfulness, bliss and wonder. Ultimately, a baseball season can’t be measured in one word because it’s rewardingly complicated, just like life. 
Even in the most painful moments, Blue Jays baseball is finding their footstep to leap forward someday. Maybe these Jays are showing us how to roll with the punches, after all.

Two hundred thirty-three thousand, two hundred eighty minutes. That’s the number of minutes in a standard Major League Baseball season. How would you measure the Blue Jays’ 2024 season? In strikeouts, in base hits? In home runs, in Starbucks runs? How about a heart-aching series against the New York Mets? 



Toronto’s three-game set against the surging New York Mets was always going to be an uphill battle. One was a team with big October aspirations and the other was very much re-constructing its future identity. Coming out on top of this series for the Blue Jays wasn’t exactly the expectation. 

However, Canada’s team also lost three straight series in a row against strong playoff contenders both on the road and at home. They desperately needed a feel-good series win to have some semblance of hope. Alas, baseball gods had another cruel plan as the team returned home to kick off their six-game home stand. 

Blue Jays’ offence carried over their scoring woes at home as they faced New York’s starting pitching dark horse, Tylor Megill, for the first game of the series. Rookie Spencer Horwitz hadn’t lost his mojo at the plate but his hot bat wasn’t enough to provide enough run support. Several players in the lineup couldn’t pull in scoring runs. Because of the continued offensive droughts, the home team was in much trouble when reliever Tommy Nance couldn’t find a way to get out of trouble against the Mets after its infield defence made an unfortunately sloppy play. That proved to be the difference maker and Toronto inevitably fell to New York with the score of 3-2. 

The second game of the series was a saving grace for the Blue Jays as the lineup took advantage of Mets’ starting pitcher David Peterson rather successfully. Their balls found gaps and made New York’s infielders and outfielders make mistakes they would regret by the end of the game. Once Toronto got on base and cashed in their baserunners, they came out of the game with the score of 6-2, playing with New York’s National League Wild Card race in the process.

As the Mets and Blue Jays evenly split the series, it all came down to the last game of the series on Wednesday to decide everything. With both teams feeling much of the burden to prove themselves, lineups on either side couldn’t muster up productive hits. Thankfully, the Blue Jays’ offence managed to score the first run of the game as young starting pitcher Bowden Francis held the Mets’ offence at bay quite smoothly. 

While both offences didn’t provide much entertainment for much of the game, Francis was once again on his way to flirt with history as he retired New York’s batters one by one. He may have surrendered a few walks, but the Mets continued to come up blank as Francis dominated on the mound. Toronto’s defence, both in the infield and outfield, put out their best performances to help Francis’ case in making another no-hit bid.

https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1833965162195485094

Francis came out again at the top of the ninth inning to get another shot at making Blue Jays history. His no-hit bid was still intact as he prepared to face switch-hitting sensation Francisco Lindor. They say that once Lindor gets going, things fall in place for the Mets. And that’s exactly what happened when Lindor lobbed the baseball out of the young right-hander. Lindor hit a home run off Francis to not only break his no-hitter but also tie the game.

Toronto’s starting pitcher walked off the mound after surrendering a home run to turn it over to seasoned reliever Chad Green. What followed for the Blue Jays was nothing but ugly. Green struggled to secure any outs and gave chances for Mets’ hitters to threaten a comeback. In the end, the veteran reliever was responsible for giving up four earned runs against New York and fellow reliever Génesis Cabrera was also charged with one earned run as the Mets paid the Blue Jays back with the score of 6-2. 

With an agonizing loss on Wednesday, the Blue Jays had lost four series in a row, but much of their season consisted of excruciating losses, even at their best. They have always been in a position to lose a game, even when everything else helped them win more games. 

If anything, this three-game stretch offered a perfect snapshot of the frustratingly torturous season for Toronto. The peaks and valleys the Blue Jays dugout experienced all year were condensed into these 72 hours. The team witnessed an anemic offence’s resurrection, messy defence, mini-scoring fest, cleaner defence, better-than-expected pitching performances and yet another no-hit bid within those three days. Toronto flashed their capability and made a case for their young, unproven talents in these three games, even if the end results were bittersweet at best. 

The Blue Jays’ heartwrenching experience against the Mets was akin to their struggles against the Cincinnati Reds, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves. It was reminiscent of missed opportunities and wasted potential, yet some promising and joyful moments in the series gave a delusional sense of hope.

So, how do you measure this Blue Jays’ season with yet another crushing series loss? It can be in heartbreaks, passion, wistfulness, bliss and wonder. Ultimately, a baseball season can’t be measured in one word because it’s rewardingly complicated, just like life. 

Even in the most painful moments, Blue Jays baseball is finding their footstep to leap forward someday. Maybe these Jays are showing us how to roll with the punches, after all.

Blue Jays snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with another late-game meltdown against the Mets

Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Ernie Clement (22) beats the tag from Athletics second baseman Luis Urias (17) to slide safely to second base on a double during the eighth inning at Rogers Centre.

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