Music: {allcanada} Blinded by the light

ANAHEIM, Calif. – A weekend in Anaheim in which they repeatedly showed their mettle yielded little in the way of tangible results for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Sunday afternoon's 3-1 defeat to the Los Angeles Angels and an overpowering Jeff Weaver capped off their first series loss of the young season, and was another downer on the heels of falling short in a 14-inning marathon the previous night.

That both games could have gone either way was the primary reward for all their work.

"The fact that we've put together nine pretty good games, I think it speaks to their consistency, their awareness and their focus one through nine," said Jays manager John Farrell.

"You'd like to have a hit in a certain spot, but in this series it didn't work that way."

Jo-Jo Reyes (0-1), pitching with a roster decision to come soon as the return of Brandon Morrow looms, coughed up a run in the first but soon settled to throw seven strong innings. Things might have been different had Rajai Davis not dropped a ball in centre field during the fourth, leading eventually to a pair of unearned runs on Peter Bourjos' triple.

Davis came out of the game the following inning after re-aggravating his injured right ankle, one of several concerns for the Blue Jays (5-4) as they continue on to Seattle and Boston during their 10-game road trip.

Davis will be get at least a couple of days off to rest the ankle, while Corey Patterson, who'll be activated from the 15-day disabled list Monday, is likely to start in centre Monday night in Seattle.

"I think the (14) innings didn't help and then such a quick turnover playing an early day game is really tough on (the ankle) when it's still healing," said Davis, who blamed the dropped ball on a lack of focus. "Just thinking about too much … it's tough when you've got other things bothering you …

"I would say more or less thinking about my body, how's it going to react if I do this, if I do that. It's tough. You've got to deal with it."

Davis (1-for-14), Travis Snider (1-for-12), Aaron Hill (2-for-15) and Juan Rivera (3-for-13) – spoken to for not trying to break up a double play Friday night – were among the players to have a rough series at the plate, while Edwin Encarnacion's defensive issues continued Saturday before he sat out Sunday with a strained right hip flexor.

On the bright side, Yunel Escobar returned from his concussion without missing a beat, picking up an RBI single against Weaver (3-0) while looking solid in the field. And the bullpen, depleted to the point that Scott Richmond was called up to help after Saturday's 6-5 loss, maintained its brilliance.

Richmond recorded the final out of the eighth inning in his first big-league appearance since Oct. 3, 2009 before being returned to Las Vegas to make room for Patterson.

Weaver, meanwhile, improved to 7-1 lifetime versus the Blue Jays with 7.2 dominant innings, striking out a career-high 15 batters for the Angels (5-4) before an announced crowd of 43,525. His 15th strikeout was of Jose Bautista with two on and one out in the eighth, a 3-2 breaking ball his final pitch of the night.

Hisanori Takahashi then came on to retire Adam Lind on a weak grounder to the pitcher to end the eighth, and Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth for his second save.

"It's tough because you can't ever sit on one pitch because you never know what he's going to throw," Lind, who finished 0-for-4, said of Weaver. "He didn't throw very many pitches over the plate and he was throwing curveballs in 3-2 counts at like 74 m.p.h. It's hard to take pitches like that."

Morrow is slated to make his second rehab start on Tuesday, likely in Dunedin, and may be ready to return afterwards. That means room will soon need to be made in the rotation.

Reyes allowed six hits and a walk with six strikeouts, with only one of the three runs against him earned thanks to the Davis error. He gave up a Torii Hunter RBI single in the first to open the scoring, while Bourjos' two-out shot to right-centre cashed in Alberto Callaspo, who singled, and Mark Trumbo, whose fly ball was dropped.

The performance was a marked improvement from the five runs he allowed over 3.1 innings to Oakland on Tuesday, but he insisted he's not looking over his shoulder.

"Not at all," said Reyes. "I wasn't worried about the last outing once it was over with, I started preparing for this outing and the hard work is paying off.

"(On Sunday) I was keeping the ball down, minimizing the extra-base hits."

Jesse Litsch (1-0, 4.26), who like Reyes is also thought to be on the bubble, starts Monday against Felix Hernandez (1-1, 2.25) and the Mariners.

Vernon Wells went 1-for-13 with an RBI in his first series against his old team, and had a brain cramp in the sixth inning Sunday when he caught Lind's drive and thought the inning was over when there were actually just two down, allowing two runners to each advance a base.

Notes: Saturday's marathon lasted five hours three minutes, the longest Blue Jays game since a 5:06 affair, also against the Angels, on April 28, 2002. … The teams played an 18-inning monster in Toronto on July, 28, 2005, with the Blue Jays winning 2-1. That one last 4:50. Players to appear in both games for the same team are: Aaron Hill, Jason Frasor and Maicer Izturis. Vernon Wells and Juan Rivera played in both games but have switched sides. Jose Molina played for the Angels in 2005, and was on the Blue Jays bench on Saturday. … When Davis left the game, Snider moved from LF to CF for the first time in his career, while Jayson Nix moved from 3B to LF. John McDonald took over at 3B.