The Toronto Blue Jays kicked off the critical second half of the season in a difficult way, suffering a 12-4 drubbing at the hands of the Chicago White Sox at Rogers Centre on Friday night.

The Blue Jays are now 45-52 and 3.5 games back of the third and final wild card spot. We've identified the first seven games of the second half as the key to the rest of the Blue Jays season, at least in terms of whether or not they buy or sell at the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Part of the reason why the Blue Jays are in this frustrating position is the injuries they've suffered, but also because of the power outage from superstar Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Guerrero, who carried the Blue Jays to the World Series a year ago, is hitting .262 with just six home runs and 41 RBIs.

Shockingly enough, none of those home runs have come at home. As noted by StatsCentre, his 45 game home homereless streak is the eighth longest to start a season by a Blue Jays player.

It should be noted that other excellent players, including John Olerud (56 in 1995) and Alexis Rios (55 in 2004) have had longer streaks.

Regardless of what becomes of the rest of the Toronto season, Guerrero will want to turn his season around. A perennial All-Star, he's never had less than 23 home runs in a full season, and he even had nine in the 60-game COVID season of 2020.

Even in 2023, which was a down season for him that saw him hit .264, he still had 26 home runs and 94 RBIs.

He's certainly not even close to being on those tracks again this season.

The Blue Jays and White Sox will play game two of their series on Saturday afternoon at 3:07 p.m. ET. The Blue Jays will send right-hander Shane Bieber to the mound while the White Sox counter with hard-throwing right-hander Davis Martin.

If the Blue Jays do end up selling at the deadline, Bieber could be a name that gets moved, as he's on an expiring deal. Other names in a similar boat include Daulton Varsho, Kevin Gausman and George Springer.

Springer has 10-and-5 rights, meaning he can veto any trade and stay in Toronto if he so chooses.

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