Houston at Toronto, 30 Aug-1 Sep

These teams, of course, made a trade about a month ago that prompted a lot of yelling and screaming. Everybody involved - Fisher, Sanchez, Biagini, even Stevenson - hasn't done much for their new teams. It's early days, of course. We won't see Sanchez this weekend. After pitching just great in his first two Astros starts, he offered up a pair of stinkers and went on the IL. Biagini is lurking in the back of the Houston bullpen but if he keeps pitching the way he has he'll be in a fight to make the post-season roster. Which is not really an issue for Derek Fisher.

There are other ex-Jays in the Houston bullpen, of course. Besides Roberto Osuna, there's Joe Smith. Smith missed the first half of this season, but he's been very good indeed since returning to action in mid-July.

The Jays will face Houston's fourth and fifth starters and Justin Verlander. That's good, right? Of course, Houston's fourth starter, who takes the ball tonight, has been one of the seven or eight best starters in the league this season. So there's that.

Matchups!

Fri 30 Aug - Miley (13-4, 3.13) vs Thornton (4-8, 5.34)

Sat 31 Aug - Valdez (4-6, 5.14) vs Buchholz (0-3, 5.87)

Sun 1 Sep - Verlander (16-5, 2.69) vs Font (1-1, 2.70)