The Toronto Blue Jays have found a groove at exactly the right time, and Thursday gives them another shot to prove this run is real.
After Wednesday night’s one-run loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto is still chasing its seventh straight series victory and trying to extend a remarkable stretch that has flipped the feel around this club. Over the last few weeks, the Blue Jays have looked like a different team than the one that showed up for most of the season, and the numbers back it up: dating to their time at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox, they are 10-0 after losses. They have not dropped back-to-back games in about a month.
That resilience has shown up even when the offense has gone quiet. Toronto followed a stagnant finish against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre last Sunday with a 10-run outburst against the Rays on Tuesday. Then came Wednesday’s game in Tampa, where the Jays battled back from a 7-1 hole but fell just short.
Now they get another crack at taking the series, with Shane Bieber on the mound and a lineup that has started to wake up.
At the center of it all is Alejandro Kirk, who has been locked in at the plate. He is 5-for-11 in the series with five RBI, and his recent power surge has only made the hot streak more obvious.
Kirk has gone deep for the second straight night, and his 120 wRC+ leads all Blue Jays hitters with at least 60 plate appearances. He remains at the top of the order and does not appear likely to move anytime soon.
The batting order gets shuffled a bit against a left-handed starter, with Nathan Lukes sliding way down. Brett Bateman is also out of the mix after leaving Wednesday’s game with hamstring tightness. He is scheduled for a precautionary MRI, with more information to come later.
Toronto has been navigating a brutal run through the schedule, facing the Red Sox, the Yankees, the Rays, and then the Yankees again. For now, the mission is simple: keep from slipping, stay in the wild-card race, and keep building toward October. It starts Thursday afternoon.
In Other News...
Padres Have A New Late-Inning Weapon Drawing Serious All-MLB Buzz
The All-MLB conversation is already starting to take shape, and for clubs around the league, it is a useful snapshot of which pitchers are forcing their way into the seasons biggest honors discussion. The projections lean heavily on current performance, with names like Jacob Misiorowski, Cristopher Snchez and Dylan Cease headlining the starting group while high-impact relievers such as Mason Miller and Louis Varland have also pushed their way into the picture.
For a Blue Jays team that knows how quickly late-inning arms can change the feel of a series, the reliever debate is the most interesting part of the board. Miller and Varland are drawing serious buzz as the kind of weapons that can reshape October expectations, but these All-MLB predictions remain just that for now, a snapshot of where the season stands before anything is officially handed out. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays Broadcast Crew Still Earned Respect During A Tough Transition
Awful Announcings latest local MLB broadcast rankings offered a small reminder that the Blue Jays television crew still carries real weight with viewers, even through change. In a vote based on more than 85,000 ballots, Torontos Dan Shulman, Joe Siddall and Hazel Mae finished eighth, sliding from fourth a year ago but still holding a spot among the sports more respected booths.
The drop was tied in part to Buck Martinezs retirement, a shift that naturally altered the familiar rhythm for Blue Jays fans. Even so, the result shows the audience has not drifted far from the crew, and it also places Toronto in a category that included the Padres Don Orsillo and Mark Grant at No. 1 for a second straight year, a useful benchmark for how strong the competition remains. [Read more 🡒]
Blue Jays May Have Found A Serious Bat Far Later Than Expected
Jake Bennett has made an early impression in Dunedin, and it is not hard to see why the Blue Jays were drawn to him in the draft. The club took him in the eighth round largely because of the bat, and through his first 12 games with Single-A Dunedin, he has given that evaluation some real traction with four home runs and a .940 OPS. The extra-base damage has been the headline, even if the approach still comes with a fair amount of swing-and-miss.
What makes Bennett especially interesting is how much room there still is for the Blue Jays to sort out the rest of the profile. His defensive home is not settled yet, with catcher, first base and designated hitter all in the mix, which leaves Toronto with a pretty straightforward question: how much of his value will come from the bat alone? For now, the organization can at least feel encouraged that a late-round pick is already forcing a closer look. [Read more 🡒]