Instant Reaction: Blue Jays drop series finale to White Sox, inch closer to selling at trade deadline

Photo credit: © John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Jul 19, 2026, 15:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 19, 2026, 15:21 EDT

This season keeps getting worse and worse for the Toronto Blue Jays.

With the unofficial second half of the season beginning on Friday, the Blue Jays need to start winning ahead of August 3rd’s trade deadline. After an embarrassing 12-4 loss on Friday, the Jays managed to win Saturday’s game 1-0, but once again fell on Sunday, dropping a 3-0 decision in the rubber match. Let’s take a look at what went on in this one.

Starting the game for the Blue Jays was Trey Yesavage, who struck out two in the first inning. The Blue Jays went quietly in the bottom of the first, before Yesavage gave up his first base runner on a one-out walk in the top of the second. That was sandwiched between striking out the side.

Yesavage hurled another clean inning in the top of the third, but the Blue Jays still didn’t have a base runner through three innings. Finally, a team got on the board, as a lead-off walk to begin the top of the fourth eventually came in to score thanks to a single and sacrifice fly to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, Ernie Clement hit one to the warning track, only for former Blue Jay Randal Grichuk to catch it. This was the second such catch on the warning track in the game. Nathan Lukes finally got a hit, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. flew out and Kazuma Okamoto popped out to end the inning.

Yesavage struck out two in the top of the fifth, his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the game. The latter matched his season high, which he then surpassed thanks to a strikeout of lead-off hitter Munetaka Murakami in the top of the sixth. However, Colson Montgomery hit a two-out, solo home run on a 1-2 pitch to give the White Sox their second run of the game.

The following batter, Andrew Benintendi, doubled to give the White Sox another base runner, and he was cashed in by Braden Montgomery to give them a 3-0 lead. B. Montgomery was caught in a run down to end Yesavage’s afternoon.

In the end, one run was enough for the White Sox. The Jays drew a walk in the bottom of the sixth, then notched a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh, but neither runner even reached second.

They finally started a bit of a rally in the bottom of the ninth, as Clement and Lukes led off the inning with back-to-back singles. But Guerrero Jr. lined out, advancing Clement 90 feet, then Okamoto grounded out into a game-ending double play.

Takeaways…

Trey Yesavage pitched better than his final stat line suggests. In the end, he went six innings, giving up three earned runs, two walks, and a season-high nine strikeouts to bring his season ERA to 3.78. The difference between two earned runs was one 1-2 splitter that was left just a little too high. Just like Shane Bieber on Saturday, Yesavage gave them a chance to win.