BOSTON — Every player has their own added pressures. The stresses change, but never go away. Some Toronto Blue Jays are playing to stay in the big leagues; others face impending free agency or future arbitration cases.

The looming trade deadline, veteran starter Max Scherzer said, is yet another external factor. Add it to the list.

“There are so many different things,” Scherzer said. “You can be in a contract year, you can be in the playoffs, there’s so many different ways the game challenges you, and you have to win every single day. … No matter what is going on around us, we always have the pressure to perform and win. And right now is no different.”

With Friday’s 6-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox, the Jays fell 10 games under .500. With the deadline eight games away, the Jays seem destined to sell. Even if they win every game ahead of Aug. 3, the Jays would still be two games under .500 on deadline day. Every Jay, even those not fearing their lives might soon be uprooted, must play with that concept hanging over the clubhouse.

“You don’t just get to run in between the lines like, ‘Oh we’re just playing baseball,’” Scherzer said. “If you don’t win at this level, you’re gone. Hey, we signed up for that. We love it like that. We don’t want it any other way. I’m not complaining about it one bit; that’s just the reality we live. That’s our challenge.”

Scherzer, sitting in the Fenway Park visiting dugout, declined to dive deep on the no-trade clause in his contract and how he’d approach it if the Jays chose to trade him. If the front office decides to sell, Scherzer said, he’ll talk about it then. Addressing deadline implications this early, he said, is pointless.

Kevin Gausman, on the other hand, was open to breaking down the implications of his eight-team no-trade list and how emotionally impactful the looming deadline is on him and his family. He likened the Jays’ situation to playing under a “big magnifying glass.” Neither Gausman nor Scherzer’s approach is definitively correct. They’re just two people approaching the same situation in different ways. It’s a challenge all 26 Blue Jays players, plus the coaches, have to deal with.

For some, the looming deadline may be motivating. Maybe Scherzer, who said on Friday that he feels good enough to return off the injured list next week, can showcase his talents and get sent back to a contending club. Perhaps George Springer launches a few homers over the Green Monster and makes himself more appealing in the coming days. Shane Bieber’s last two starts, one earned run across 13 innings, certainly helped his trade value.

For others, Toronto’s declining playoff odds could ratchet up the pressure. The Jays have been trying to for weeks — really months — to turn this season around. They’ve yearned for the big hit or big strikeout so many times. They have been pressing, Gausman said.

“It’s like everyone’s trying to fix our season in one at-bat or one outing,” Gausman said earlier this week. “When you’re chasing results up here, it’s just not going to happen. You’re kind of fighting an uphill battle if you’re trying to push the envelope.”

As the deadline gets closer, stress isn’t likely to decrease.

There was a looseness to the 2025 Jays. If a starter got torched for five runs or a hitter struck in a big spot, Gausman said, there was an unspoken faith that another player would compensate for the struggle. That’s what happens when wins start to stack. Looseness begets looseness.

“Letting the cards fall where they may,” Gausman said, “there’s a hidden belief in that. We just don’t have that right now.”

Kazuma Okamoto breaks Shohei Ohtani’s rookie record

When Kazuma Okamoto tied Shohei Ohtani ahead of the All-Star break for the most homers by a Japanese rookie in MLB history, he didn’t pop any champagne bottles. He didn’t even crack a smile.

“I don’t read too much into those numbers,” Okamoto said through team interpreter Yusuke Oshima.

Care or not, the Blue Jays third baseman now owns the record outright. The 30-year-old connected on a misplaced sinker in Friday’s seventh inning, driving the pitch over Fenway Park’s large centre-field wall. It cashed Toronto’s first three runs in the loss and pushed Okamoto past Ohtani, who hit 22 dingers in his first season with the Angels in 2018.

Perhaps Munetaki Murakami, who has 20 homers in 66 games with the White Sox, will pass Okamoto later this year. Maybe another Japanese sensation comes to MLB and passes them both next year. At least in one category, though, Okamoto will always be above Ohtani.

Besting almost any Ohtani record is an admirable feat, as the two-way Dodgers star has won four MVPs, two World Series and been a six-time All-Star in his first nine MLB seasons. This rookie record for Japanese players, though, captures just how quickly Okamoto has adjusted to big-league pitching. While so much of Toronto’s offence, which entered Friday 30th in runs scored, has struggled, Okamoto is a rare exception. He leads the Jays in homers (23) and RBIs (65), despite facing new pitches in new parks almost every night. Even for Ohtani, the homers didn’t arrive this quickly.