Clearwater Pitching Shoves Again, Blue Jays Fall 4-1

Clearwater, FL — The Dunedin Blue Jays dropped their fifth consecutive contest on Friday night against the Clearwater Threshers, 4-1.

The Threshers pitching staff continued their impressive stretch, holding Dunedin to just a lone run in the ninth inning. Clearwater starter Jean Cabrera looked great, throwing six scoreless frames while scattering five hits and two walks before passing the baton to reliever Wen Hui Pan, who pitched the final three innings.

It was another night where the Blue Jays lineup just couldn’t put together many threats. Despite outhitting the Threshers 7-6, Dunedin only had three innings where a runner was in scoring position, and saw nothing come of it in two of those instances.

The Blue Jays did threaten in the fourth with Tucker Toman leading the inning off with a double, being moved to third on a groundout. But a fly ball to center ended in a sliding grab by Emaarion Boyd, leaving Toman caught between two minds and having to go back to the bag to tag up. That hesitation left Boyd with just enough time to gun down Toman at the plate, keeping the Blue Jays scoreless.

Then in the fifth, Robert Robertis and Jean Arnaez both singled to start the inning, and Manuel Beltre would later walk to load the bases with two outs. But Cabrera was able to strike out Jaden Rudd, seeing Dunedin come up empty again.

Meanwhile, the Threshers used their speed and aggressiveness on the base paths to bend the Dunedin defense, forcing two errors that would both cost the Blue Jays runs. Blue Jays starter Kendry Rojas ended his day with five innings and all four runs charged to him, but only two of them being earned.

The Dunedin bullpen kept Clearwater off the board for the remainder of the game, giving the Blue Jays a chance in the ninth. For the third time in four games, Dunedin would manage to get the tying run to the plate, and in this instance aboard in the ninth inning, but could only manage to score one before the final out.

With the loss, Dunedin falls back to under .500 for the first time since May 3rd, and have lost a series for the first time since the opening weekend in Fort Myers. The Blue Jays will look to bounce back in game-five of the series Saturday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.