This weekend series will feature two of the biggest early season disappointments in the American League. Both the Toronto Blue Jays and the Texas Rangers have started to turn their fortunes around, though it’s been a much quicker assent for the streaky Rangers than it has for a Blue Jays team still waiting to get several stars back on the field. The Jays will have home field advantage in this series which hasn’t been that big of a deal for Toronto so far, but Texas has enormous splits, going just 8-15 on the road.
This series will be contested from Friday, May 26, 2017 through Sunday, May 28, 2017 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Both Saturday’s and Sunday’s games can be seen on the MLB Network.
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Pitching Matchups
The Blue Jays opened the season with what many believed was the deepest starting rotation in the AL. Sure, they lacked depth beyond the starting five, but one through five, they appeared to be stronger than any other team.
Injuries took care of that quickly. The Jays currently have three starters on the DL and have already had nine starters make at least two starts.
Two of the replacement arms will take the ball in this series with Mike Bolsinger on the bump on Friday and Joe Biagini on the hill on Sunday. In between, Toronto will turn to one of the rotation’s most veteran, and underrated, arms in Marco Estrada.
By contrast, the Rangers will have regulars toeing the rubber, including Yu Darvish who will match up with Estrada on Saturday in what should be the lowest scoring game of the bunch. A.J. Griffin will get his eights start of the season on Friday while Andrew Cashner goes for his second win on Sunday.
As for the Saturday matchup, Estrada is coming off a strong start, striking out a career high 12 Orioles his last time out. He’s leaning on his changeup heavily, as he’s done since getting to Toronto, and it’s continuing to perplex some of the league’s more aggressive bats. The Rangers have several of their own such hitters such as Rougned Odor and Joey Gallo, but does even them out with Mike Napoli and Shin-Soo Choo, both of whom draw their walks and force the opposition to pitch, but both can also be susceptible to the strikeout, too.
In any case, Estrada brings a 3-2 record, 3.30 ERA and 1.133 WHIP to the mound. He’s made 10 starts, going 62.2 innings while providing consistency. He’s gone at least six innings in all but one start and has seven quality starts to his name this season.
Flipping over to Darvish, he’s a more dominating presence on the hill. He’s striking out batters at a lower rate this year than Estrada, but has been a better strikeout pitcher over his career. On the flip side, he’s allowing just 6.5 hits per nine innings which is more in line with the numbers Estrada has put up the last few years than Darvish’s career norms.
Overall, Darvish is 3-2 with a 2.45 ERA in his career against the Jays, but he did allow five runs in five innings in a loss to them in the ALDS the last time he faced them. Keep in mind, Darvish has had a full offseason of rest and looks much better than he did last year. He’s 5-2 with a 2.83 ERA in his 10 starts, throwing one more inning than Estrada.
While Saturday will be a battle of the arms most likely, the other two games may feature the bats more heavily.
Friday night’s starter for the Rangers, Griffin, is coming off a terrible start where he surrendered nine runs to the Tigers without getting out of the fourth inning. He also gave up four home runs. He needs to do a better job locating the ball, but that may have just been an off game. Before that, the Rangers had won his first six starts of the season. Plus, he’s got a career 2.39 ERA against the Jays.
Meanwhile, Bolsinger has the advantage of anonymity. He’s only faced one Rangers’ batter in his career, though that batter is Jonathan Lucroy who is 3-for-7 with a homer. Still, the rest of the lineup should get a sense of his movement early and adjust. Bolsinger hasn’t been good in his three starts with Toronto but gets another start out of necessity. He’s 0-2 with a 6.32 ERA in 15.2 innings.
Lastly, the Cashner versus Biagini matchup brings intrigue. Biagini was a god send for this team in relief last year as a Rule-5 pick and since getting a chance to start had two good starts—albeit in shortened stints due to pitch count—and two not-so-good starts.
In his last two starts, Biagini has allowed eight earned runs in 8.1 innings. Cashner, on the other hand, is just 1-4 this year, but he does have a 3.18 ERA, but his 5.04 FIP indicates there’s quite a bit of luck involved in the ERA despite the lack of luck involved in the win/loss record.
Who's Hot?
Mike Napoli is hitting just .198 with a .267 OBP and he’s not alone with depressed numbers in the Rangers’ lineup, but the veteran first baseman has been hitting better of late.
Napoli hit just .146 in April with three home runs and a .505 OPS. In the month of May, he’s batting a much more respectable .260 with eight home runs and a .934 OPS. Napoli’s days as a .300 hitter are behind him—in fact, that was just one year anyway—he’s not going to hit for much average, but he’ll draw enough walks to have a respectable OBP and will provide power in the middle of the order. That’s what he did last year in Cleveland and that’s what he’s been doing here in May.
With Napoli a threat in the middle rather than an automatic out, that really strengthens the rest of the lineup around him.
After a strong start, Nomar Mazara cooled down fast, but he’s been playing very well since mid-May. Since May 13, he’s gone 13-for-32. He’s hit just one home run in that time, but has five doubles.
With a 10-game winning streak barely in the rearview window, much of the team is hot—though they have dropped three of four.
As for the Jays, they’re hoping to get Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson back shortly. Both would be a big boast to the lineup.
Without them, the team does still have Jose Bautista who looked done in April. He’s hitting .313 with a 1.059 OPS and seven homers along with 16 RBIs in May. He’s hitting 19-for-43 over the last two weeks with five home runs and has eight hits in 17 at bats with a couple of homers in his last five games.
Devon Travis is another bat that’s been swinging well. He’s hitting .405 over the last two weeks and is 9-for-22 with four extra base hits in the last week.
Who's Not?
With the rest of the Rangers’ bats waking up, Odor’s has remained quiet. While he has collected a hit now in three straight games, he’s still hitting just .207 for the year and hasn’t gone deep since May 5.
Another struggling Ranger has been Jeremy Jeffress who has now had back-to-back disastrous outings. Texas could salvage a win in one, but dropped the most recent.
Over the last two appearances, Jeffress has allowed five hits and five runs, walking three and allowing one home run while recording just two outs. His ERA has jumped two and a half runs over those two appearances.
The bullpen had been an issue for Texas early and was a big part of the team spiraling out of control in the first couple weeks so having another key reliever—much like Sam Dyson to start the year—struggling is a cause for concern.
On Toronto’s side, the team is still leaning heavily on more utility-type players. Most are delivering. Ryan Goins had a big game on Wednesday and while Darwin Barney’s OPS is just .582, he has been picking it in the infield.
In general, the team is just missing some of their bigger bats and will need to get them back and up to speed in order to sustain their slow, but steady climb back towards .500 and beyond.
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