BOSTON, Mass. – A season in which everything that could go wrong has for the Toronto Blue Jays reached a new level of palm-to-the-forehead absurdity during the first inning of Friday night’s loss to the Red Sox.

Between innings, the first baseman fires ground balls the infielders and the outfielders play catch. At Fenway Park the bullpens are in right field, so the left-fielder and centre-fielder toss back and forth, while the right-fielder throws with someone from the bullpen. In the Blue Jays’ case, that’s usually batting practice pitcher Jesus Figueroa.

Figueroa will throw a ball to the right-fielder (in this case Anthony Gose), for him to toss it to the centre-fielder (Colby Rasmus) so that he can play catch with the left-fielder (Rajai Davis) until the break between innings is over. A key consideration in this entire collection of throws is to make sure that the people are actually watching, and that’s where Gose missed his mark.

Just as Rasmus had trotted to his position, Gose threw him the ball. But Rasmus has his head down, and didn’t look up until the last second. He tried to get his glove up for protection, but the ball hit him in the face, just below the left eye.

Rasmus had to leave the game and, at last word, was in hospital awaiting a CT scan. He never lost consciousness, left the field under his own power and didn’t appear to be bleeding as he walked off. One hopes he’ll be able to recover quickly, but with only nine games to go, there’s a solid chance that Rasmus will join seven teammates—Jose Bautista (femur bruise), Melky Cabrera (spinal tumour), Edwin Encarnacion (wrist surgery), Maicer Izturis (sprained ankle), Josh Johnson (elbow), Brandon Morrow (nerve impingement) and Juan Perez (elbow)—on the sidelines. Rasmus had only been off the disabled list for a week himself, having missed just over a month with an oblique strain. In his five games back, he was 6-for-17 with four home runs, for a dazzling line of .353/.421/1.059.

More absurdity? Why not. Trailing Boston 2-0 in the fourth, the Jays had the bases loaded and nobody out with Gose at the plate. He hit a high chopper, but right to third baseman Will Middlebrooks, who stepped on the bag for one out and had Kevin Pillar trapped between third and home. He was easy pickings in a rundown for a 5-2-5-2 double play. It was the second straight game in which the Blue Jays have hit into a double play with both outs recorded between third base and home plate. That’s nuts.

When it was all over, the Blue Jays had to sit and watch as Boston manager John Farrell, the man who couldn’t get out of Dodge fast enough last winter, celebrated an American League East division title with his new charges, as the Red Sox completed their worst-to-first journey their 94th win of the season. That’s a 25-win improvement over 2012, with seven games yet to play. But hey, Brian Butterfield and John McDonald are going to the playoffs, so there’s that.

Terrible starting pitching and brutal defence were the hallmarks early in the Jays season. When it was already too late, injuries hit hard in the season’s final month. Bautista, Cabrera, Encarnacion, Izturis, Johnson, Morrow and Perez have been shut down for the season. And now Rasmus might join them.

It seems as though with every passing day, there’s another piece of bad news for the Blue Jays, but nothing so ridiculous as what happened after the top of the first inning Friday.

BlueJaysTalk