A rough first series for the Toronto Blue Jays have them at the bottom of the division here in the early going as they head to the Trop to take on the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend. The Jays, however, still boast the deepest rotation in the division and a very strong lineup. Both will be on display in this four game weekend set.
This series will be contested from Friday, April 7, 2017 through Sunday, April 9, 2017 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.
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Pitching Matchups
After a nice matchup of Marcus Stroman and Blake Snell in Thursday’s series opener, the matchups continue to be strong throughout the weekend.
On Friday, southpaw Francisco Liriano will get his first start of the season for the Jays matched up against right-hander Matt Andriese who grabbed the fifth spot in Tampa Bay’s rotation after performing in the swing role last year.
Liriano was filthy throughout the spring and had many of his teammates raving that he could be in for a very big year. For the veteran left-hander, it’s all about command and control. He’s always had the stuff to dominant, but was at his best in Pittsburgh when, through the help of Rey Searage, he was able to harness it.
With the Pirates, Liriano was a front-of-the-rotation starter. In a deep Blue Jays’ rotation, he’s now an afterthought and could thrive given the lesser pressure.
As for Andriese, he’s been serviceable in seven appearances against the strong Toronto offense, pitching to a 4.05 ERA.
Following the Friday night matchup, the Jays will get their first look at Aaron Sanchez on the bump Saturday. He’s the team’s fifth starter to start the year simply because of a late start to the spring. He led the AL in ERA last year and many figure him to be the team’s ace by season’s end.
He’ll square off against another ace in Chris Archer, making his second start of the season after going seven innings and giving up just a pair of runs against the Yankees on Opening Day.
This will be the best pitching matchup of the weekend with Sanchez looking for an encore from his 15-2 record, 3.00 ERA 2016 seasons. After throwing 192 innings, there’s some concern about whether that’ll have an impact on him this year as it was a jump of 100 innings, not counting the postseason, from the year before.
While that could come into play, it’s more of a question for his durability later in the year. For now, look for Sanchez to pick up right where he left off while Archer builds off his strong first start and impressive World Baseball Classic performance, leaving his 19-loss season from last year in the rearview mirror.
The series will wrap on Sunday as Jake Odorizzi tries to bounce back from a rough outing against the Yankees in his last start and Marco Estrada looks for a bit more support than he got from his offense on Opening Day.
Who's Hot?
The Rays struggled in the middle game of the three game opening series with the Yankees, but otherwise had an easy ride through that first set.
Logan Morrison is swinging a red-hot bat with five hits in nine at-bats in the series and slammed a home run. Evan Longoria and Corey Dickerson both hit bombs, too, while Kevin Kiermaier looks relaxed with his new extension in place. Signed mostly for his legendary defense, his bat has been sharp early with four hits in 11 at bats. He’s also drawn a pair of walks.
The Rays have also gotten good production out of their bullpen early with Tommy Hunter delivering a clean inning in his team debut and Alex Colome notched a save in clean outing for both of the team’s wins.
Who's Not?
The Blue Jays’ bats ran into a buzz saw in their first two-game mini series against the Orioles to kick off the season.
Toronto will be led this season by their rotation, but the offense for this team is still very strong. After all, it was just two years ago that the Jays led all of baseball in runs scored by quite a hefty margin. While Edwin Encarnacion is gone, Kendrys Morales is a solid fill-in and the rest of the lineup remains relatively the same.
Kevin Gausman, Dylan Bundy and the vaunted Orioles’ bullpen pitched well to hold Toronto to just three runs scored in 20 innings. The Jays will be happy to leave Baltimore for St. Petersburg in hopes of finding more opportunities.
After just two games, the Blue Jays have Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki both still hitless in nine at bats, while the three and four hitters of Jose Bautista and Morales are 2-for-17 combined with five strikeouts.
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