After splitting a two-game
series against the Philadelphia Phillies earlier in the week, the Blue Jays are
in Anaheim starting tonight for a three game series against the Los Angeles
Angels. David Price (11-4, 2.41) is scheduled to start for Toronto while Hector
Santiago (7-6, 2.86) gets the nod for LA.
With 41 games left in the
regular season, it’s too soon to say that this is a make-or-break weekend
series for the Jays, however it is a very crucial one. Since their eleven game
winning streak that propelled them into first place, the Jays have won only two
of five games and have slipped to 1 ½ games behind the New York Yankees.
While it would be foolish to
press the panic button just yet, it’s important the Jays win at least two of
the three games in Anaheim. Not only to try and keep pace with the Yankees, who
seem to be on a role in the past week having swept the Minnesota Twins at the
beginning of the week, but lost the first game of their four-game set
against Cleveland on Thursday, but also because the Angels are one of the teams
the Jays have pushing them in the Wild Card chase.
The two games against the Phillies
raised questions about the Jays pitching again. After giving up twelve runs in
the two games against the worst team in the National League, it’s important
Toronto gets three solid starts from their pitchers this weekend.
It was good to see the bats
start to come back to life, but again, it was the Phillies. A better test will
be against the Angels this weekend, whose pitchers are much better than
Philadelphia’s.
At this point of the season, as
we start the last ten days of August, the Jays must stay within shouting
distance of New York when the calendar switches to September and the pennant
races get heated up.
As well as the Angels, the
Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins are also in pursuit of the
wild card. But even though the Jays have a decent lead in the top Wild Card
position, they should be focused on catching the Yankees and winning the
division.
By winning the division, they
would automatically be playing in the American League Division Series, whereas
winning either of the Wild Card spots would be a one-game sudden death playoff
where there’s no margin for error. In a best-of-five or best-of-seven series,
you can have a bad game and know that you can make up for it. In the Wild Card,
that doesn’t happen.
However, as mentioned before, if
the Jays have trouble this weekend, there will still be a slew of games left
and they’ve already managed to go on an eleven game winning streak twice this
season. There’s no reason why they can’t go on a similar run again.
Other exciting series in MLB
this weekend include the National League Wild Card leaders Pittsburgh Pirates
hosting the San Francisco Giants, who are on the heels of Chicago Cubs for the
second spot (Pittsburgh won the first game of the series, 4-0, on Thursday night). Minnesota plays Baltimore, with both teams chasing the Angels for
the final AL Wild Card. And the most intriguing matchup is a battle of West
Division Leaders. The AL West leading Houston Astros, who could solidify their
contender status with a good showing this weekend, host the NL West leaders,
the Los Angeles Dodgers, who also have to worry about the Giants who are only
two and a half games behind.
The first of many more exciting
weekends to come as we get closer to the stretch drive.
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