The Toronto Blue Jays lost their fourth game in their last five tries Friday when they dropped the series opener against the Baltimore Orioles 7-4 as former Blue Jay Chris Bassitt got the win over Blue Jays future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer.
The loss dealt a blow to the Blue Jays’ playoff hopes, as they fell to two games out of the final American League wild-card spot with just 14 left to play.
Before the middle game of the series on Saturday, the Blue Jays made a sudden announcement about their All-Star infielder, Ernie Clement.
Clement was left out of Toronto’s starting lineup Saturday, with Josh Smith sliding in at second base as the Blue Jays started Saturday against Baltimore.
The move comes as Clement slogs through his coldest stretch of the season, and it puts extra scrutiny on how Toronto manages its lineup with a long-shot wild-card spot still on the line.
| TORONTO BLUE JAYS STARTING LINEUP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP: Spencer Miles (RHP) • 6-2, 2.77 ERA | ||||
| September 12, 2026 • Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON • 3:07 PM EDT • Orioles at Blue Jays | ||||
| # | Player | Pos | AVG | SLG |
| 1 | Brett Bateman | CF | .339 | * |
| 2 | George Springer | DH | .248 | * |
| 3 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | 1B | .259 | * |
| 4 | Alejandro Kirk | C | .273 | * |
| 5 | Nathan Lukes | RF | .274 | * |
| 6 | Kazuma Okamoto | 3B | .234 | * |
| 7 | Josh Smith | 2B | .223 | .352 |
| 8 | Andrés Giménez | SS | .242 | * |
| 9 | Rudy Martin Jr. | LF | .000 | .000 |
| Lineups confirmed. Season stats shown (AVG / SLG). * SLG cut off in source graphic. Rudy Martin Jr. .000/.000 reflects an extreme small sample. Note: player’s first name appears as “Rudy” in this graphic vs. “Davis” in the earlier unconfirmed lineup — “Rudy Martin Jr.” is used here from the confirmed source. | ||||
Blue Jays’ Ernie Clement Absent From Saturday’s Lineup
Official lineup cards for the 3:07 p.m. ET game at Rogers Centre confirmed Clement’s absence, with Smith starting at second base and batting seventh. Clement is not on the injured list, and Toronto has announced no roster move tied to his absence.
The benching follows a pattern. Clement sat out last Sunday against Kansas City after five straight starts, with Smith again drawing the assignment against a right-hander. Saturday brings a similar matchup, with Baltimore sending right-hander Kyle Bradish to the mound while Spencer Miles starts for Toronto.
The rest day arrives amid a rough stretch at the plate. Clement is hitting just .173 over his last 15 games with no home runs, and his September line sits at 8-for-36. He went 1-for-4 with a double and scored a run in Friday’s 7-4 loss to the Orioles, but that outing came in the middle of a broader cold spell that followed an All-Star first half.
Toronto’s team-wide dip coincides directly with Clement’s decline at the plate. Smith remains the only real alternative at second base on days Clement sits, and Saturday marks at least the second time in the past week Toronto has turned to him there.
| BALTIMORE ORIOLES STARTING LINEUP | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP: Kyle Bradish (RHP) • 7-13, 3.91 ERA | ||||
| September 12, 2026 • Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON • 3:07 PM EDT • Orioles at Blue Jays | ||||
| # | Player | Pos | AVG | SLG |
| 1 | Dylan Beavers | LF | .246 | .391 |
| 2 | Pete Alonso | 1B | .266 | .494 |
| 3 | Jackson Holliday | 2B | .231 | .347 |
| 4 | Coby Mayo | DH | .223 | .468 |
| 5 | Gunnar Henderson | SS | .221 | .396 |
| 6 | Christian Encarnacion-Strand | 3B | .268 | .484 |
| 7 | Heston Kjerstad | RF | .222 | .222 |
| 8 | Colton Cowser | CF | .214 | .367 |
| 9 | Carlos Narváez | C | .166 | .234 |
| Lineups confirmed. Season stats shown (AVG / SLG). Heston Kjerstad .222/.222 reflects a very small sample. Encarnacion-Strand SLG shown as .484 — fully visible in today’s graphic. | ||||
Clement’s Unlikely Career Track
Clement, born in Rochester, New York, and raised in nearby Brighton, starred at the University of Virginia and helped the Cavaliers win the 2015 College World Series before earning Cape Cod League MVP honors the following summer.
Cleveland selected him in the fourth round of the 2017 draft, and he debuted in the majors in 2021. Oakland claimed him off waivers in 2022, then released him the following March. Toronto signed him to a minor-league deal with a spring training invite days later.
Clement hit his way to Triple-A Buffalo, earned a call-up to Toronto in May 2023, and has started regularly ever since. He signed a one-year, $4.6 million contract in January and set the all-time record for hits in a single postseason with 30 last October. He is also a Gold Glove finalist, played for Team USA in this year’s World Baseball Classic, and has built a reputation as an extreme contact hitter who rarely strikes out while covering second, third and shortstop for Toronto.
Toronto sits fourth in the AL East at 73-75 and two games behind Cleveland for the final wild-card berth, with Texas, Baltimore, Minnesota and Seattle all bunched within a few games of the same spot. Baseball-Reference puts the Blue Jays’ postseason odds near 25 percent, down after Friday’s loss, though Toronto still holds the head-to-head tiebreaker over Cleveland.
Blue Jays Announce Sudden Ernie Clement Decision Before Orioles Game