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Bowden Francis, coming off a three-inning start in which he had allowed five home runs, was better but not great, allowing four runs over 4 1/3 innings. He kept the ball in the park this time.

“It’s frustrating,” Francis said after falling to 2-5 on the season, his ERA up to 5.66. “I don’t care how many home runs I give up, we’ve got to win the ball game. That’s up to me to get us in a position to do that. Four (runs allowed) is too many.”

Maybe. But when Francis left, his team was down by only one run with 15 outs to play with.

The bigger issues, as we have seen throughout the still-young season, were missed early opportunities by the offence and the hits drying up midway through the game.

In Saturday’s gutting ninth-inning loss聽鈥� the only game in their last 13 that the Jays were in position to win going into the late innings聽鈥� the last 15 hitters they sent to the plate were retired in order.

Sunday, they managed just two hits after Andres Gimenez’s two-run single in the fourth brought them to within one run.

The first one, a single by Alejandro Kirk, followed a leadoff walk to George Springer in the bottom of the eighth and moved the tying run into scoring position. Ernie Clement then bunted the runners to second and third.聽

But the next hitter was the light-hitting Myles Straw. The speed-and-defence specialist was 3 for his last 23.

“You trust everybody, you know what I mean?” manager John Schneider said about the decision to have Clement bunt the runners over for Straw. “It comes down to your approach in that situation. There are going to be matchups that you like, that you try to grasp, and there are going to be matchups that are going to be tough, especially against a bullpen like that.

“So you trust that big-league hitters who have been there before have a good approach.”

Straw popped up a first-pitch slider, leaving the Jays in need of a two-out hit. Nathan Lukes popped up a 2-1 fastball to end the inning.

Brendon Little, making his 18th relief appearance in the season’s 34th game, issued a career-high-tying three walks in the ninth, the last one with the bases loaded. That insurance run meant that instead of tying the game on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.‘s ninth inning sacrifice fly, the Jays merely cut their deficit in half. They left the tying run at third base when Springer struck out to end the game.

“We need to do a better job,” said Anthony Santander, who went 0-for-4 but drew a 12-pitch walk in the third, loading the bases for Springer, who flied out to deep right-centre. “Especially with a runner on third and less than two out, we need to drive that runner in.”

Santander is finally starting to do his part, having posted a .350 on-base percentage while striking out only twice in his last 20 plate appearances.

Andr茅s Gim茅nez may be starting to come around as well. The second baseman went 5-for-12 in the three-game series after managing all of six hits in the 16 previous games.

It is a positive that the Jays are 16-18 after the mess of the last two weeks, but the cracks are beginning to show barely 20 per cent聽into the season.

There were white-knuckle outings this weekend from usually-reliable relievers Jeff Hoffman, Yimi Garcia and Little, the effect of them having been overused early. The Jays have already played 19 games that have been decided by two runs or fewer or gone to extra innings.

The low-hanging fruit continues to elude the team; the Jays are last in the majors with 23 home runs.

“As a team, sometimes, because we know we’re not scoring runs when we need to, we put too much pressure (on ourselves),” Santander said. ”(We need to) try to be more relaxed and try to do what we can control, which is compete in the at-bat and win it. Don’t try to do too much.”

The next three games in Anaheim could be a chance to exhale a little. The Jays have won 11 of their last 13 games at Angel Stadium dating back to 2021, averaging 6 1/2 runs per game.