TORONTO -- The Blue Jays were due for an ugly inning.

They come for everyone, but given the endless stream of one-run games the Blue Jays have been playing, it’s been a while. Things finally unraveled in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s 9-1 loss to the Yankees, though, exposing just how fine a line the Blue Jays’ offense has forced them to walk. 

Six runs scored in the seventh, and they weren’t without some controversy. After Giancarlo Stanton reached on a close play at first, which stood after Toronto challenged the call, Marwin Gonzalez got caught in a rundown between third base and home. With first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, third baseman Matt Chapman and catcher Alejandro Kirk chasing him down, it looked simple enough.

Guerrero eventually took a toss from Kirk near home plate, and while chasing Gonzalez back toward third base, he appeared to tag him high. Home-plate umpire Ron Kulpa disagreed, waving his arms to indicate there was no tag, and Gonzalez scampered home to score. With no challenges remaining, there was little the Blue Jays could do as the boos rained down following the call.

“I always go by the player because he’s the one making the tag,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “It seems like it was obvious because Vladdy really felt it. Of course we checked it, but we couldn’t [challenge] any more.”

Alek Manoah, whose performances against the Yankees are becoming his trademark already, gave the Blue Jays another six innings of one-run ball before everything went sideways. He saw it the same way.

“I think they were clearly both outs,” Manoah said. “We lost our challenge on a play that we shouldn’t have, and then Vladdy clearly tagged that guy and we missed that one, too. So, we’re not going to dwell on it. The game is over. We got our butt kicked. [But] we’re going to keep moving forward. It’s a long season and we’re going to go win plenty more ballgames.”

Plenty more went into the long inning, of course. The Stanton play to open the inning featured a throwing error by Bo Bichette. The rundown, even though it appeared to end in a tag, wasn’t the cleanest. Adam Cimber had a very uncharacteristic outing, allowing three runs (one earned), then Julian Merryweather allowed three more, two unusual sights from a bullpen that’s been fairly reliable in 2022.

What this all highlights, though, is how demanding these weeks of baseball have been for the Blue Jays. Like a pitcher who throws 89 mph, they’ve left themselves no room for error. Toronto’s pitching and defense have been strengths up to this point, but when the offense is scoring just one run, any misstep will be magnified.

“We’re cold. I’m not going to come in here and say we’re swinging the bats. We’re not,” Montoyo said. “But when we played Houston and we saw [Yordan] Alvarez and [Kyle] Tucker struggling, I knew that when we faced them again, they were going to hit. They did. So that’s how I see our offense. Yes, we’re cold, but we’re going to get going at some point.”

It’s been particularly tough with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays rank last in MLB with a .168 average and a .534 OPS in those situations. Part of this is simply bad luck and bad timing, but not all of it. The return of Teoscar Hernández, likely this coming weekend at Cleveland, will help. Without him in the middle of the order, Toronto hasn’t had one of its best bats at the plate when the top three hitters reach base.

This issue also blankets over some small wins along the way. Bichette scorched a double and went 2-for-4, giving him seven hits in his last four games as he jolts back following a slow stretch. Manoah was up to his old tricks, too, retiring 15 consecutive batters at one point and exiting the game with a 1.45 ERA. It’s the first time in Manoah’s last 12 starts that the Blue Jays lost.

We’re also seeing some parallels to the early days of the 2021 season, and how the three phases of pitching, hitting and defense need to balance one another out through the season.

There will come a time when the back end of this bullpen stumbles not just for a night but for a week or two. It happens, again, to everyone, even World Series contenders. By the time that happens, the Blue Jays will need this offense to be performing up to the potential of its massive talent.