GOT TO FIGURE IT OUT: Can slumping Blue Jays snap out of it against division leaders?

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Is it desperate times for the sliding Blue Jays, losers of six of their past seven contests and residents of last place in the tough American League East?

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The players don’t have much time to think about it as they look to right the ship in St. Pete, Fla. when they begin a four-game series against the first-place Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night.

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“We play the team that’s leading the division for the next four days so we don’t really have time to hang our heads,” pitcher Kevin Gausman said following Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre.

“We’re going to Tampa and playing a really good team and obviously we need to turn around. That’s the good thing about baseball, you don’t really have time to think. We’ve got to figure it out.”

Now 10 games into a stretch of 17 games in 17 days, the Jays have plenty to figure out though, starting with a highly-touted offence that has gone ice cold.

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It is particularly dire with runners in scoring position. In Sunday’s loss, the Jays were a dismal 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and heading into Monday’s action, rank 24th in Major League Baseball in that category. In their past eight games, the Jays are an inept 8-for-66 with runners on second or beyond.

“Obviously we’re grinding right now,” Gausman said before the team flew to Florida to begin a seven-game, two-city road trip. “The last two series (going 1-3 against the Yankees and a swept away 0-3 against Baltimore) haven’t been very sharp for us.”

Reversing field won’t come easily against a Rays team that may be battling an injury bug but are a formidable 21-4 at Tropicana Field, a place that has historically been a stadium of horrors for the Jays. At least on Monday the visitors will have starter Chris Bassitt – who hasn’t allowed a run in his past 27 innings – on the mound to face the Rays Trevor Kelley.

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The Jays have fallen to 25-22 and find themselves a disheartening 8.5 games in arrears of the Rays (34-14) while also looking up in the standings at the three other teams in their division.

The poor run from the Jays has been out of character for a team that had preached strong defence and details like moving runners along the base paths. Manager John Schneider figures it will be just a matter of time before they return to form, but has had moments of exasperation just the same.

“It’s at the point where enough is enough,” Schneider said on Sunday. “You’re waiting for it to turn. I know it will (but) in order to get there, guys are going to have to continue to work their asses off.”