Toronto at Minnesota, May 26-28
Friday, May 26 2023 @ 10:50 AM EDT
Contributed by: Magpie
On the one hand, winning one of four at the Trop really isn't all that terrible.
Consider. The Rays, after all, are playing .828 ball at home. The mighty Jays held them to .750. Surely cause for muted celebration.
Very muted - they Jays have been playing like crap for about two weeks. This needs to stop.
What this team could need is a trip to Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. As I observed just the other day, this is the Blue Jays favourite ball park in all the world - they've gone 27-16 there, which is a very swell .628 winning percentage.
Alas - one of the biggest reasons for that lovely record at Target Field is no longer applicable. Jose Bautista was in the lineup for 25 of those 43 games, and he went all kinds of berserk there - .324/.410/.794 with 14 HR. That's almost a 90 HR pace over a full season.
The Jays will be sending their three best starters against the Twinkies, while avoiding Minnesota's two best - the dependable veteran Sonny Gray and staff ace Joe Ryan. As you may recall, the Twins stole Ryan away from Tampa Bay in exchange for two months worth of a 40 year old DH. I mention this because it's very comforting, in times like these, to remember that Tampa Bay can be just as mind-numbingly stupid as everybody else.
As it happens, the Twins have been getting quality work from all of their starting pitchers, which includes the three that the Jays will see this weekend. They need it - their bullpen beyond Jhoan Duran and Jorge Lopez is extremely shallow.
Matchups
Fri 26 May - Gausman (2-3, 3.14) vs Varland (2-0, 4.18)
Sat 27 May - Bassitt (5-3, 3.03) vs Lopez (2-3, 3.90)
Sun 28 May - Berrios (4-4, 4.22) vs Ober (3-1, 2.55)
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