Well the Blue Jays have continued to hold up their improvements, the offence is doing a good job of getting runs but not just through home runs, they are being more selective at the plate, striking out less and getting hits where they can, no matter if they be singles, doubles, triples or home runs. In addition Buerhle and Dickey seem to be turning things around and our call ups to replace Happ and Johnson (Ortiz and Jenkins) have been on a roll as well. However now is when the real test for this team begins, why is that you ask? Well because tomorrow we start a 3 game series with the Yankees who are on a 7-3 record of their last 10 games, followed by a 3 game series against the Rays who are at the same last 10 game record as the Yankees and then another series against the Orioles (basically all the AL East teams that are performing well at the moment). So it's really going to come down to these 3 series' to show whether the Jays can make that big step and keep their playoff ambitions alive. So let's look at the match ups for the next few games.
The Yankees Series
-Friday: Buerhle vs. Kuroda: Now this is a rematch from late April, with the exception that the Yanks have Granderson back so their offence could be pumped up a bit depending on his condition after coming back from the DL (sometimes players need time to re-adjust). When we look at that last game the offence performed rather poorly, and for those who say Buerhle was terrible you forget that even though he gave up 3 runs in the 3rd inning he did get back in the groove and take them down for about another 3 innings. So with the improvement we've seen in his performance (the 3-2 win over the Red Sox and the 8-7 win over the Rays, again you have to see that he only gave up runs in one inning and still came back and shut down the other team for another 3 innings, most pitchers would just fall apart after that) I have some confidence that he'll pitch well for the team and the better playing of our fielders will more than likely help with defence.
-Saturday: Morrow vs. Phelps: Ok so this on it's own looks like a pretty Toronto sided game, though I'm sure some are worried about Morrow's health. Now if your one of these people look at some of the articles where they interview Morrow or the Jays staff and you'll see that they pushed back his start a second time as a precautionary measure and he had been feeling better a couple days back so this was just a way of making absolutely sure he'd be ready for the start. He's still be doing his usual prep and workouts so there is no worry on that front. As for the Yankees starter, David Phelps hasn't been anything special so far and I honestly don't expect him to be, the Yanks have a good 1,2,3 in Sabathia, Kuroda and Pettite but the back end of their rotation can look a bit atrocious at times, the reason for games won with those pitchers on the mound is due to 2 things, the first being their strange offence (who the hell would have thought Vernon Wells would EVER be productive again?) and the second being Mariano Rivera. Basically even if the opponent scored a lot they were generally able to get the lead, hold it into the 9th and then the Sandman shut them out.
-Sunday: Dickey vs. Sabathia: Now this match up isn't so clear cut, Dickey made a BIG step forward last match when he struck out 10 and only allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, which is much more in line with his Cy Young seasn last year. As well Sabathia has a bit up and down, for the most part he has been consistent on allowing around 2-4 runs per game, but the hits+walks that he allows has fluctuated from 6-12 or so and sometimes the strikeouts are there and sometimes their not (last game he struck out 10 but the one before that only 2). If both players are playing to their best then we'll have quite the intriguing pitchers duel, though I have a feeling that the Jay's rejuvenated offence may be able to overcome the Yankees on this one as they are leaning on a fairly mediocre catcher (and the team has been using their speed a lot more as of late) and despite their island of 'misfit toys' performing offensively they aren't showing anything on the defensive side that makes me imagine that the types of hits the Jays offence have been getting off into the holes in the infield/outfield will go unplayed.
The match ups haven't been posted for the Rays games yet but I imagine it'll be an interesting time, especially with Alex Cobb and Matt Moore on such a hot roll as of late and even if David Price wasn't injured it would be unlikely that we'd play him considering how where they currently are in the use of their rotation.
-Eric
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