The scuffling Toronto Blue Jays will probably have to dig themselves out of an early season hole without their best player, as third baseman Josh Donaldson will likely be placed on the disabled list after aggravating a persistent calf injury Thursday, according to Jon Morosi of MLB Network.

Donaldson, who missed most of spring training with a right calf strain, pulled up lame as he headed for second after stroking an eighth-inning double in Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles and was immediately lifted from the game, walking very gingerly off the field alongside trainer George Poulis. After the game, which saw the listless Blue Jays fall to 1-8 with their sixth straight loss, manager John Gibbons said Donaldson would be re-evaluated Friday.

"Let’s hope he doesn’t (miss time), I’m going to try to be as optimistic as I can about that," right fielder Jose Bautista told Sportsnet's Shi Davidi. "I haven’t talked to him so I don’t know exactly how he’s feeling, or what the direction on that is, but if we do miss him, it’s not going to make it any easier, but it’s not going to make it impossible."

As Bautista noted, losing Donaldson - hitting .310/.429/.586 through nine games while accounting for roughly 22 percent of Toronto's extra-base hits - for any amount of time would be a massive blow for a lineup mired in a crazy funk. Averaging an MLB-worst 2.67 runs per game early on, the Blue Jays' collective .190 average, .277 slugging percentage, and .140 average with runners in scoring position all represent franchise-lows through the first nine game of a season.

"We have good players on this team, he’s definitely one of the biggest contributors, if not the biggest, but we have 12, 13 other guys in the room here that on any given day can contribute," Bautista said. "Sometimes people have to step up, myself included."