WEST SACRAMENTO -- Andrés Giménez stood in the batter’s box as if frozen in place, keeping his bat extended and watching his game-tying ninth-inning home run in flight. He posed there for several seconds before jogging down the first-base line and flipping his bat end over end in front of a raucous Blue Jays dugout.Just twenty minutes later, Giménez crouched to the left of the mound, stunned into silence. His all-out effort to field a bases-loaded chopper from Athletics first baseman Jeff McNeil hadn’t quite been enough: McNeil beat the rap at first base for a walk-off infield hit in the bottom of the ninth.Blue Jays Retro Bag Giveaway is Friday | Hello Kitty Bobblehead Giveaway is Saturday!In a matter of moments, Giménez and the Blue Jays had experienced all the ups and downs of high-stakes, high-tension September baseball in Monday’s 6-5 loss at Sutter Health Park.Giménez’s homer in the ninth to fully erase Toronto’s early 5-1 deficit looked like it might spark a dramatic comeback win. Instead, it just made things all the more painful -- especially since the Blue Jays had a chance to sneak back into an American League Wild Card spot thanks to the Guardians’ 6-4 loss to the Orioles earlier in the day.“We’ve got to shake this one off and come back tomorrow,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.It might not be easy for Toronto to bounce back from a game in which its ace and its lockdown closer both stumbled. Starter Dylan Cease was tagged for five runs (four earned) in five innings, while closer Louis Varland -- pitching in a tie game in the ninth -- failed to send the game to extra innings.Varland’s struggles, at least, are more attributable to poor luck than to total ineffectiveness. Donovan Walton and Henry Bolte both drew walks to end plate appearances that featured a number of borderline pitches called balls. The Blue Jays, who lost both of their ABS challenges by the fourth inning, were powerless to change the outcome.The Athletics’ hits against Varland in the ninth were hardly scorchers. Max Muncy led off the decisive frame by reaching on a 42.7 mph tapper to third base, while McNeil’s walk-off hit was all of 51.9 mph off the bat. Only one ball in the inning -- a line drive to center field for the second out -- even left the infield.“It’s going to happen sometimes,” Schneider said. “No one else I’d rather have out there than Louis. Good placement by them.”Cease, meanwhile, continued his struggles at Sutter Health Park. He allowed a career-high nine earned runs in his only previous start in West Sacramento, back in April 2025 with the Padres.The right-hander’s average four-seam fastball velocity on Monday was just 94.9 mph, more than 2 mph below his season average of 97.1, but Cease expressed little concern for the sizable dip.“I think it’s just late in the season,” Cease said. “I’ve got to kind of roll with what I’ve got and figure out how I can maybe maximize it a little better.”Among the least effective pitchers in MLB when it comes to controlling the running game, Cease was repeatedly victimized on the basepaths during Monday’s start. The A’s swiped five bases in the first three innings, including two apiece for Henry Bolte and Zack Gelof, which led to two runs against Cease in the third. That brought Cease’s total to an MLB-high 31 stolen bases allowed this season.Get the latest from the Toronto Blue JaysHave the latest news, ticket information, and more from the Blue Jays and MLB delivered right to your inbox.“I wish I had a little more focus on that,” Cease said of the Athletics’ disruptive baserunning. “I feel like looking back, I kind of just let it happen. They definitely took advantage.”Technically, the Blue Jays did manage to catch a runner stealing home in the first inning, but they didn’t get the out they needed. With men on the corners, Carlos Cortes broke for second, and Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk caught Gelof off third, but a missed catch and then a poor throw from third baseman Kazuma Okamoto -- who was charged with two errors on the play -- ruined the rundown and brought in a second A’s run.“We talked about it before the game: Against a pitcher like [Cease], they’re going to take chances,” Schneider said. “We’ve got to do a better job of limiting those extra bases. First inning, really, too, we’ve got to handle the baseball.”Okamoto atoned for the mistake with a home run to lead off the Blue Jays’ three-run seventh inning, and Giménez made up for a baserunning gaffe of his own to bring Toronto level in the ninth, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough.