Jays haven’t hit stride because they haven’t hit


Apr 14, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (2) gets out of the way of pitch as New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann (34) makes the catch in the eighth inning at Rogers Centre. Toronto defeated New York 4-2. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 14, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (2) gets out of the way of pitch as New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann (34) makes the catch in the eighth inning at Rogers Centre. Toronto defeated New York 4-2. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

TORONTO — The reason the Toronto Blue Jays have not hit their stride yet is that they have not hit well overall.

Josh Donaldson is one exception. He has hit in all 10 Blue Jays’ games and his three-run homer was the key to defeating the New York Yankees 4-2 on Thursday.

But players like Troy Tulowitzki, who hit his second homer of the season on Thursday, Justin Smoak, Chris Colabello, Kevin Pillar, Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin have taken turns scuffling in the early season.

Manager John Gibbons knows the hitting will come. The track records are there.

His approach is simple.

“Just pat ’em on the butt,” Gibbons said. “They’ve (struggled) before. Even prior to my time with them I guarantee they had slow starts, slumps. Everybody’s not always good in this game all the time.”

The Blue Jays won their past two games and they won their first two games of the season. In between, they have struggled and are 5-5 to open the season, including a 3-3 homestand that they completed Thursday. Now they go on the road for seven games to Boston and Baltimore that will complete a 17-game run against American League East teams.

“I feel good leaving,” Gibbons said. “We kind of salvaged a pretty good homestand, the way we started, against two pretty good teams (the Boston Red Sox and Yankees). We feel pretty good right now, we saw some signs of life.”

As for playing so many games this early within the division, Gibbons said he would prefer a balanced schedule, especially with the two wild-card system. But with the unbalanced schedule, weighted to having more games within the division, he is all for getting some those games in early.

“We play so many games against them, it’s good to get some of the out of the way now,” he said.