SWEPT IN SEATTLE: Reeling Blue Jays struggling on and off the field

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SEATTLE — The words Charlie Montoyo used to describe his team’s latest excruciating, incredulous loss barely scraped the surface of Sunday’s end to a demoralizing seven-game road trip.

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“Baseball can be cruel sometimes when things are not going right,” the Blue Jays manager said following a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park, that clearly marked a low point for the free-falling team.

Cruel, yes, but also calamitous, given how this one unfolded and what the result might mean going forward. 

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The Jays were swept in a four-game series for the first time this season, a result made worse by the fact that it allowed the surging Mariners to catch them for the third and final wild-card spot in the American League.

It was also a major downer for the thousands of Western Canadian fans who crossed the border en masse to see their team play live for the first time in three years.

The Jays have now dropped nine of 10 and suddenly find themselves a mere two games up on the Baltimore Orioles, the last-place team in the AL East.

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The way the latest loss went down to finish a 1-6 road trip, is almost too incredulous to believe, unless you’ve followed the team closely for the past eight days and seen the toll the turmoil around them has taken.

First, the baseball stuff. 

What would have been an inning-ending double play in the fifth instead saw a throw from catcher Gabby Moreno go through the glove of first baseman Vlad Guerrero Jr. — yes, through it — eventually resulting in two Mariners runs and erasing most of what was then a 4-1 Toronto lead.

Though there was still plenty to unfold, if momentum was the guide, the game was as good as over at that point.

“This whole road trip, it’s been a little bit like Murphy’s Law,” said reliever David Phelps, the man on the mound when the play disastrous play happened. “If something can go wrong, it has. The good thing is, we’ve got a lot of season left.

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“When things are going bad, it just magnifies everything else. Over 162 games, you’re going to see a lot of crazy stuff. It just happens to be that it seems like we’ve had it in one week now.”

That excruciating period began eight days previous when the Jays learned of the tragic death of Julia Budzinski, the 17-year-old daughter of first base coach Mark. The loss hit home and left many heartbroken for their popular coach. A day later, they had to fly to Oakland on Monday night where leg-weary and exhausted as they were, they began what would be the most challenging road trip of the season.

While none of the Jays are reaching for excuses — and there are clearly a host of fundamental issues dragging them down as well — it’s also prudent to remember the human side of the sport.

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It’s a point Phelps made rather eloquently regarding Budzinski. A number of team personnel, led by Montoyo and including players and the coaching staff, will spend Monday’s off day on a team-arranged charter to Virginia for the funeral of Julia, whose life was lost in a boating accident.

“It’s been a rough week,” Phelps continued. “I’ve been through some tough stretches, some tragedies over the course of my career and everyone handles it different.

“I think there’s a lot of us whose hearts are still with ‘Bud’ and his family. We get that news and it’s a West Coast road trip.

“It’s been a grind, but at the end of the day, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. Nobody’s going to get through it other than ourselves.”

That mindset will help get the Jays to the other side, of course, and there have been signs that they are playing better. But Sunday’s result also had an unsightly component.

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After the Guerrero equipment malfunction, the Mariners tied it in the sixth only to see the Jays retake the lead with a solo home run from Bo Bichette in the seventh.

And then more sloppiness as rookie catcher Moreno failed to get his glove on what is normally a routine pop-up  10 feet from the plate.

That allowed M’s shortstop J.P. Crawford to get to first and set the stage for Carlos Santana’s second homer of the game — and second game-winner in as many days — a violent blast off Jays reliever Adam Cimber that exited in right field.

The results aren’t all that matter right now, but nine losses in 10 games have inflicted some damage, to be sure. The offence is starting to heat up — the 10 hits on Sunday included homers from Bichette, George Springer (on the first pitch of the game) and Raimel Tapia.

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Then there was the positive result of rookie pitcher Max Castillo’s first career start. The big righty went 4.1 innings allowing just three hits and one earned run, a huge development on an emergency assignment necessitated by the decimated rotation.

But the craziest play of the day was the one that left the biggest mark — and changed the course of the game.

“That play … you know that changed the game,” Montoyo said of Guerrero’s glove faltering for a second time this season. “That’s tough friggin’ luck. That changed. That’s tough friggin’ luck.

“That changed the momentum. Everyone who knows the game felt it. It was a tough break.”

Cruel and calamitous as well.