The Toronto Blue Jays are officially eliminated from postseason contention.

Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Orioles in the first game of a doubleheader mathematically ended the run, with four games still remaining.

Toronto, now 77-81, plays another game in Baltimore before an off day Thursday and a season-closing weekend series at home against the Reds.

A combination of injuries and underperformance kept the Blue Jays from following up on last year's World Series run.

Toronto opened the season with eight starting pitchers, Kevin Gausman, Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage, Shane Bieber, Jose Berrios, Cody Ponce, Max Scherzer, and Eric Lauer, but injuries to Yesavage, Bieber, and Berrios thinned that group almost immediately.

Ponce and Scherzer went down with their own early injuries, and Lauer was designated for assignment in May after a rough start.

Why Guerrero's lost season may be the biggest factor

The injuries reached well beyond the rotation. Anthony Santander had offseason shoulder surgery and never made it back to the lineup. Alejandro Kirk missed more than two months with a broken thumb, and Addison Barger played just nine games total due to ankle and elbow issues that required season-ending surgery.

That left an already thinner lineup, following Bo Bichette's offseason departure, with even less margin for error.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s struggles may be the single biggest reason for this lost season. After posting an .848 OPS last regular season, he hit eight home runs with 15 RBIs across 18 playoff games, won ALCS MVP, and hit .333 with two homers in the World Series.

His 2026, the first year of his 14-year, $500 million contract, was largely a nightmare at the plate. Through Wednesday morning, he was hitting .263 with nine home runs and 56 RBIs across 141 games, an OPS+ of 92, roughly 8% below league average.

He wasn't alone. Several other regulars fell well below their 2025 production, making it nearly impossible to overcome the rotation's depth issues.

Toronto sat eight games under .500 at the trade deadline and sold, shipping out Gausman, Daulton Varsho, and Jeff Hoffman. It wasn't a full sell, though. The Blue Jays acquired Jose Soriano from the Angels, Spencer Arrighetti from the Astros, and Brett Bateman from the Cubs in the Gausman deal, with Bateman quickly becoming the everyday leadoff hitter.

Toronto surged afterward, sitting in a playoff spot at 72-71 as of Sept. 5, their first time over .500 since April. But four losses in the next five games, combined with other teams heating up, left the Blue Jays on the outside.

There were real bright spots. Kazuma Okamoto broke the franchise rookie home run record and set the mark for homers by a Japanese right-handed hitter, passing Seiya Suzuki's 32 on Sept. 15.

The back of the bullpen was genuinely strong too, led by Louis Varland's emergence as one of baseball's best relievers and Rule 5 pick Spencer Miles becoming a real fixture on the staff.

Toronto's key free agents heading into the offseason include George Springer, Bieber, and Scherzer, leaving plenty of roster questions for a front office already facing a difficult winter.