The Toronto Blue Jays took two of three in Baltimore this week, pushing the Orioles four games back of first place in the American League East. Meanwhile, Toronto maintained its two-game lead on the Boston Red Sox atop the division as the MLB enters the final month of its regular season.
After going 17-11 in August, the Blue Jays are 76-57 with 29 games to play.
SANCHEZ STRONG IN RETURN
Aaron Sanchez returned to the Blue Jays after his 10-day sabbatical in Dunedin and pitched well in the series finale. The 24-year-old held Baltimore to an unearned run on five hits, walking three and striking out two while throwing a career-high 112 pitches.
Sanchez should’ve had a shutout but was hard done by an uncharacteristic two-out error by Josh Donaldson in the fifth inning that allowed a run to score. The Orioles gave Sanchez a good fight, battling deep into counts and getting through their order three times in six innings.
But Baltimore ultimately couldn’t solve Sanchez’s healthy mix of two-seamers, curveballs and changeups. With the strong outing, Sanchez lowered his ERA to 2.88, the second lowest in the American League.
“I didn’t forget how to pitch. I think that was my biggest thing,” Sanchez told reporters. “Telling myself, understanding that ‘even when you do get back to a big-league atmosphere it’s back to the basics and back to doing what you’ve done all year.’”
MARTIN STAYS HOT
Russell Martin has been one of the Blue Jays’ hottest hitters of late, and that continued in Baltimore where he had a hit in each game, including a two-run homer in the finale, his ninth in the month of August. The catcher is now batting .364/.417/.800 over his last 14 games.
Donaldson is also on a roll, carrying a 10-game hitting streak with six home runs in his last seven games. Michael Saunders hit a pair of home runs in the series and has seven hits in his last five.
ESTRADA LOOKS GOOD
Marco Estrada put up a strong bounce-back effort in the series opener, holding the Orioles to one run on four hits over seven innings. The right-hander had struggled in his two outings prior, allowing 11 runs over nine combined innings.
“He was like his old self,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “Good changeup, hitting his spots.”
The Blue Jays will rely heavily on Estrada during the stretch run and he should be up to the task seeing as he’s pitched the fewest innings (144.1) of any regular Toronto starter this season.
SIX-MAN ROTATION BACK INTACT
With Sanchez returning to the team, the Blue Jays plan to go forward with the six-man rotation they began using after acquiring Francisco Liriano at the trade deadline. Although the team has yet to announce it’s starters for this weekend’s series in Tampa Bay, both Gibbons and pitching coach Pete Walker confirmed the team would be using six starters.
“Right now it’s the status quo,” Walker told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “It’s where we’re at with the six guys. Obviously things can change, but right now we’ll keep it the same.”
SEPTEMBER CALL-UPS ON THE WAY
The Blue Jays will begin to receive roster reinforcements Friday night in Tampa, as MLB rosters expand to 40 for September. Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi confirmed the first four call-ups will be pitchers Matt Dermody, Danny Barnes and Ryan Tepera, as well as outfielder Dalton Pompey.
“I’m extremely excited to hopefully have that opportunity again. You don’t really understand how great it is until you’re in that role and then its taken away from you for such a long period of time,” Pompey said Wednesday on At the Letters, before he’d received word on his call-up. “It’s something that I’m really looking forward to. It’s definitely an exciting time for the team. Any way I can help the team get back to the playoffs would be great.”
The triple-A Buffalo Bisons still have a handful of games to play in their season. Some other players who could be joining the Blue Jays once the Bisons season is through include pitchers Aaron Loup, Chad Girodo, Bo Schultz and Mike Bolsinger, and position players Andy Burns, Matt Dominguez, Darrell Ceciliani and Chris Colabello.
The Blue Jays also announced the six minor leaguers they will be sending to play for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League this October: pitchers Conner Greene, Tim Mayza and Dermody, and position players Anthony Alford, Ryan McBroom and Danny Jansen. Toronto will also send a pitching coach to the Solar Sox: Vince Horsman, who coached for the double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats this year.