May has been a brutal month for the Blue Jays.

Outside of two sweeps against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves, the Blue Jays have been getting hammered by American League East opponents. They were swept by the Red Sox in Boston, they dropped six of seven to the Yankees and Orioles at home, and now they’ve dropped three of four against the Rays in Tampa.
It looked like they might have found their groove following a 20-1 beating of the Rays on Tuesday but it was the same zombie Blue Jays the rest of the series. Shane McClanahan shut them down on Wednesday and then Alek Manoah struggled in a 6-3 loss on Thursday afternoon.
Things worth mentioning…

The story of the game is obviously Alek Manoah. It looked like things were starting to move in a positive direction after his solid start against the Orioles on the weekend but things came crashing down at The Trop. Manoah went just three innings and allowed five runs (four earned) on three hits and five walks while striking out six. Of the 87 pitches that Manoah threw through those three laborious innings, only 44 were strikes.
The bullpen was saved by Trevor Richards, who came into the game and tossed three clean innings in relief on only 32 pitches. Richards now has a 3.86 ERA on the season.
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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation