TORONTO -- New-look lineup, same old story.

The Blue Jays continued to shuffle things around on Friday night, pressing to find a way out of their persistent offensive woes. But the answers eluded them again, and another brilliant outing by one of their starters ended in a tough loss.

• Blue Jays coming up short despite quality starts

“A little unlucky today,” manager John Schneider said after Toronto’s 3-2 loss to the Twins at Rogers Centre. “ ... I love the way [we] battled back, love the way [we] grinded in the ninth inning, but it didn’t bounce our way. Yeah, it sucked.”

That ninth inning was the latest summary of the ongoing narrative around this offense.

The Blue Jays’ latest lineup adjustment had Bo Bichette hitting sixth on Friday. Trailing by two runs and down to the team’s last strike, Bichette singled on a hard-hit ball to left field to keep the game going. Cavan Biggio worked a walk behind him and Isiah Kiner-Falefa found an improbable gap between the Twins’ first and second basemen to cash in Bichette and make it a one-run game.

Ernie Clement then squared a hanging sweeper right back at Griffin Jax, who deflected it off his leg and allowed first baseman Carlos Santana to pick it up and trot back to the bag for the final out, stranding runners at the corners and leadoff man Davis Schneider -- moved up as George Springer deals with a virus -- on deck.

“What can you do,” John Schneider said after recapping that ninth-inning sequence.

What you can do is capitalize on the earlier chances, such as the one the Blue Jays got in the bottom of the fifth.

Back-to-back hits from Kiner-Falefa and Clement to open the inning brought Davis Schneider up with no outs and runners on second and third. It looked like the ideal table setting for one of the Blue Jays’ most productive hitters, the club’s first choice to take over the leadoff spot precisely because of his ability to control the strike zone.

Schneider struck out on three pitches in that crucial at-bat. A pair of scorching lineouts by Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ended the threat and preserved the Twins’ lead.

“That's a situation you want to take advantage of, obviously,” said John Schneider. “I’ll take [Davis] up in that spot any time, but he didn’t get it done. … Those are the spots where you’ve got to at least manufacture one and try to get back in the game a little bit. Tonight, that didn’t happen.”

There were flashes, but we’ve seen these flashes before. As Schneider has mentioned more than once, the Blue Jays have “left some wins on the table” this season. That rings particularly true when you consider the importance of this stretch, with a road set against the AL East-leading Orioles following the Twins on the schedule for a stretch of six games in six days.

It also rings true when you look at Yusei Kikuchi’s line on Friday.

The left-hander had arguably his best start of the season, pitching eight innings of two-run ball with four hits, three strikeouts and no walks on 97 pitches, good for his sixth consecutive outing of six innings or more.

He did so by challenging an aggressive Twins lineup, touching 98 mph with his fastball while showing some emotion on the mound. Keeping one of the hottest teams in the league at bay will get anyone’s adrenaline going.

“The Twins and the Orioles, we know they’re really good teams, and we know it’s an important stretch,” Kikuchi said through an interpreter. “We wanted the win and I did my best. Disappointing result, at the end of the day.”