Toronto Blue Jays September spiral threatening playoff spot

The Blue Jays' September is off to a brutal start and unless the team can snap out of its losing skid, it may be kissing a playoff spot goodbye.

On Friday night, in front of a packed Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox geared up for what should have felt like a postseason game. Instead, the Jays fell behind in the first inning and it got worse from there.

The final scoreline was humiliating: 13-3.

Manager John Gibbons's description: "Blah."

His only advice for his team is to put it behind them.

The Jays have now played seven times this month and won only once.

The losing streak — including being swept by the Yankees in New York — has cost the Jays the American League East lead and could be threatening the team's wild card chances, too.

Sure, if the season ended today the Jays would still make it into the postseason. But the team will need to find a way to win sooner rather than later.

As of Saturday, the Blue Jays have 22 games left. Of those games, 15 will be against division opponents, including five more games against the Red Sox and three against the Baltimore Orioles.

And a quick peek at the standings — there are plenty of Jays fans doing this like spectators at a horror movie — shows several other threats further down the rankings, including a Yankees team that once appeared completely out of contention now firmly in the wild card chase, trailing only the Orioles and Detroit Tigers.

Odds still in team's favour

Before Friday night's meltdown against Boston, Major League Baseball's postseason projections showed the Jays with an 81 per cent chance of making the playoffs. But, while Boston's odds are ticking up, the Jays are going in the wrong direction.

There are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The Blue Jays starting pitchers, despite cooling off lately, have demonstrated their ability to dominate opponents. The Jays' batting lineup, which performed better last season, is still a scary sight for pitchers.

But there's real cause for concern. Friday night's games was marred with errors, the bullpen remains suspect and the team still appears to be struggling to find its groove. (Remember last season's massive winning streaks? Those would be nice right about now.)

So what's a Jays fan to do? Well, you can hit the panic button. Or, you follow Marcus Stroman's lead. After all, a winning weekend and the Jays are tied for the division's top spot again.