After wrapping up their final homestand of the regular season in style, the Toronto Blue Jays head to Baltimore for a four-game set against the Orioles beginning on Monday night.
The Blue Jays enter the series with a four-game lead over the New York Yankees atop the American League East division while the club is tied for the best record in the AL with the Kansas City Royals.
Here’s five things you need to know ahead of the Orioles series:
Monday, Sept. 28 – 7:05 p.m. ET
Marco Estrada vs. Chris Tillman
Tuesday, Sept. 29 – 7:05 p.m. ET
Marcus Stroman vs. Miguel Gonzalez
Wednesday, Sept. 30 – 7:05 p.m. ET
R.A. Dickey vs. Kevin Gausman
Thursday, Oct. 1 – 7:05 p.m. ET
David Price vs. TBD
Revenge on their minds: As Sportsnet’s Jeff Blair indicated in his column Monday morning, the Blue Jays would love to clinch their division title at the home stadium of their biggest rival.
Last season, the Blue Jays had to watch as the Orioles celebrated their AL East title at Camden Yards in front of them. Now, the Blue Jays have the opportunity for payback. Based on how the Yankees fare against the Boston Red Sox, the Blue Jays can wrap the division as early as Tuesday. The magic number is four after Sunday’s walk-off victory.
Growing rivalry between Jays, Orioles: It has been testy when these two clubs have faced off in recent matchups. Between Jose Bautista‘s rivalry with Orioles reliever Darren O’Day, Marcus Stroman getting ejected last season for throwing at Caleb Joseph, and Bautista’s screaming match with Adam Jones earlier this year, there’s been some bad blood between Toronto and Baltimore. It should be another heated series with so much on the line for Toronto.
Don’t expect to see Tulowitzki this series: The Blue Jays are very pleased with the progress of injured shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. However, GM Alex Anthopoulos admitted it’s unlikely that he’ll take the field this week against the Baltimore Orioles.
“People have talked about Baltimore but I think that would be real early,” he told Sportsnet 590 The Fan Monday morning. “I don’t know if it’s smart for us to let him get to that point, but we’ll see here in the next few days.”
According to Anthopoulos, a more likely scenario would be for Tulowitzki to get in some action against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Blue Jays’ last series of the regular season.
Can Blue Jays contain Chris Davis? The Blue Jays might be catching Chris Davis at the right time. The Orioles slugger, who leads the league with 43 home runs, is in a bit of slump with just one home run since Sept. 14. He has not registered an RBI over his last five games, but at the same time it’s hard to put too much stock in a small sample size.
In the greater context, Davis has had a fantastic second half of the season, registering 24 home runs with a 1.031 OPS since the all-star break, so Blue Jays pitchers need to be very weary of his bat.
Pillar on a tear: Blue Jays centre-fielder Kevin Pillar is heating up right before the start of the post-season, recording 11 hits, two home runs, and six RBI over his last five games. The Blue Jays have such a dangerous offence that Pillar’s performance can get overlooked, but he’s been a big contributor in important games down the stretch. The club is hoping that carries over into the final week of the regular season.
