SEATTLE -- The Blue Jays and Mariners have forgotten how to play a normal baseball game.

They¡¯re the two friends who can¡¯t get together without causing some trouble, who meet up for a quiet dinner and end up getting home at sunrise. Sometimes, that leaves you with an incredible story. Other times, it leaves you with a splitting headache.

You can¡¯t even call these two teams rivals. Even after last year¡¯s historic AL Wild Card Series collapse for the Blue Jays, there¡¯s not enough bad blood to fill the definition. Toronto and Seattle are more like collaborators, coming together to put on a show that¡¯s loud, loose and chaotic -- especially when the Blue Jays bring 20,000 Canadians to the party.

Toronto is stuck on the wrong end of these, though, as the featured artist on two of the Mariners¡¯ biggest wins of the season. Saturday¡¯s 9-8 loss at T-Mobile Park, not even a full 24 hours after being walked off by their old friend, Teoscar Hern¨¢ndez, was another gut punch.

¡°These are two playoff-caliber teams,¡± said starter Kevin Gausman. ¡°It¡¯s just high-level baseball. These are two really good bullpens, good starting staffs on both sides, great lineups, good defense. You look at both teams, matchup-wise, it would be hard to say one team has any certain advantage overall. We definitely have our advantages in certain aspects, but listen, they just had timely hitting today.¡±

Toronto even had its ace back, and while Gausman gave up four solo home runs, the Blue Jays¡¯ offense finally showed up to support him. That¡¯s barely happened this season, as Gausman has dealt with some of the worst run support in baseball.

Just two innings after the Mariners launched three home runs in a single frame, the Blue Jays answered by doing the exact same. Kevin Kiermaier and Brandon Belt got it started, then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. launched his 16th of the season to give Toronto a 5-3 cushion. It felt like the turning point, but it turned out to be false hope.

As soon as Gausman handed it over to the bullpen, the Mariners pounced. Seattle put together a five-run seventh, mostly against Nate Pearson, and it all came down to Hern¨¢ndez once again. His two-run double broke the tie to put the Mariners up, 9-7, making him the hero on back-to-back nights against the team that traded him last offseason.

Watching that collapse must have been hard enough for Blue Jays fans, but to see it capped off by a player who was one of Toronto¡¯s most beloved personalities is downright cruel.

Even when you tuck the emotions away for a moment, this loss gets to the core of the Blue Jays¡¯ inconsistencies in 2023. Manager John Schneider preaches the notion of ¡°playing in sync,¡± the idea that a club¡¯s offense, defense, pitching and baserunning all need to show up. When one doesn¡¯t, it¡¯s like removing a leg from a table. At best, it starts to wobble. At worst, it collapses.

¡°I think workload catches up at times,¡± Schneider said, ¡°and we were running a little short today. It just comes down to executing pitches. They¡¯ve done it at a high level for the majority of the season. It seems to be tough sledding here against these guys for whatever reason. Today just came down to executing.¡±

The Blue Jays¡¯ bullpen has been a true strength this season, ranking top five in the American League in ERA, strikeout rate and walk rate entering Saturday. That group has been the club¡¯s rock.

¡°A bullpen that¡¯s been really, really reliable all season had a bit of a blip,¡± Schneider said. ¡°It¡¯s baseball. It works out like that sometimes. Sooner or later, we¡¯re going to play in sync for quite a while and we¡¯re going to be on a nice little roll.¡±

Some of what went wrong Saturday should improve. Gausman said after the loss that he felt like he hadn¡¯t pitched in a month, and he was forced to work around some lower velocities early in his outing. That should correct itself as he gets back into a five-day routine after dealing with some side soreness coming out of the All-Star break, and a ¡°normal¡± Gausman is one of baseball¡¯s best.

Until the Blue Jays are truly playing in sync, though, these losses will continue to feel particularly painful. The familiarity with the Mariners dumps more salt on the wound.

It¡¯s been a playoff atmosphere in Seattle all weekend, and that¡¯s the exact situation in which the Blue Jays need to get comfortable with winning.