The Toronto Blue Jays, despite clinching the AL East on Wednesday night, have plenty to play for entering their final series of the regular season.
Entering the three-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jays are tied with the Kansas City Royals with a 92-67 record atop the AL.
Here are five things you need to know ahead of the Rays series:
Friday, Oct. 2 – 7:10 p.m. ET
Mark Buehrle vs. Erasmo Ramirez
Saturday, Oct. 3 – 6:10 p.m. ET
Marco Estrada vs. Chris Archer
Sunday, Oct. 4 – 3:10 p.m. ET
TBD vs. Matt Moore
Buehrle watch: It remains unclear how the Blue Jays will deploy Mark Buehrle in the post-season, if at all, but this weekend is about a personal milestone for the veteran left-hander. Buehrle enters the series 8.2 innings short of reaching the 200-inning plateau for the 15th season in a row. Manager John Gibbons admitted he’d love to see Buehrle reach the milestone, which would make him the fourth pitcher in MLB history to do so. The others: Warren Spahn, Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry, all of whom are now in the Hall of Fame.
Buehrle is 1-1 with a 6.11 ERA in three starts against Tampa Bay this season, surrendering a season-high 13 hits at Tropicana Field in late April.
Tulowitzki set to return: The Blue Jays plan to play Troy Tulowitzki in Saturday’s game, according to Shi Davidi. The injured shortstop took batting practice Thursday and will face live pitching in a simulated game Friday in order to be ready for game action before the start of the post-season. Tulowitzki, who batted .232/.314/.368 with five home runs in 39 games with Toronto, has not appeared in a regular-season game since cracking his left shoulder blade on Sept. 12 in a collision with outfielder Kevin Pillar at Yankee Stadium.
Chase for home field: As mentioned above, the Blue Jays enter the series tied with the Royals in the chase for home-field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. Toronto let Kansas City gain ground in the standings after dropping two straight games in Baltimore following Wednesday’s 15–2 rout in the first leg of the doubleheader. Some questioned whether Gibbons should’ve prioritized the No. 1 seed, given the Blue Jays’ 52-28 home record, but that irked the Blue Jays manager.
”My job is to take care of these guys,” Gibbons said. “Yes, we’d love to win it but I’ve got to do what’s best for these guys—not what some bozo out there in fantasy land thinks.”
LISTEN: Stephen Brunt joins the At the Letters Podcast
Expect to see more regulars: The Blue Jays have made rest a priority at this point of the season so the team can be fresh heading into the playoffs. The Blue Jays essentially fielded a minor-league lineup during the last two games of the Baltimore series, but Gibbons said he plans to roll out more of the everyday position players this weekend.
“Nobody is shutting it down, we’ve got to keep these guys playing until the end, get them ready,” Gibbons told reporters earlier this week. “The thought was never to shut them down, I don’t know what it looks like, but that was never the intention, anyway.”
Loup’s final post-season push: Gibbons acknowledged Thursday that the Blue Jays have yet to make a final determination on their playoff roster and are still figuring out how to deploy their relievers. Based on that, one player to watch this weekend is left-hander Aaron Loup, one of Toronto’s few left-handed options out of the bullpen. Loup hasn’t allowed an earned run over his last 4.2 innings but has struggled with command throughout the 2015 season.
The Rays have a number of left-handed bats in their lineup, including John Jaso, Grady Sizemore, Kevin Kiermaier and James Loney, so Loup could get plenty of action this weekend.
