There’s just about no room for error for the Blue Jays at this point.
In order for this team to make the playoffs, they’re going to have to hop over two teams from the group consisting of the Red Sox, Yankees, and Athletics.
This week was a disappointing one for the Blue Jays. They went into Anaheim and split a four-game series with a mediocre Angels squad and then they dropped two of three in Seattle with another ho-hum team. The Seattle series pretty nicely encapsulated the general, overarching 2021 Blue Jays energy, as the team had a pair of bullpen meltdowns and saw a key player leave a game due to an injury.
Here’s what happened elsewhere in the race…
- The Yankees took two of three from a shitty Royals team and then also took two of three from the White Sox, though they hilariously blew the Field of Dreams game after putting up a four-run ninth inning. New York is 65-52.
- The Red Sox started off the week facing the Rays, which is a bit of a difficult one for us to choose sides on. At this stage, the American League East feels out of reach, so I would root for Tampa to beat either New York or Boston to help Toronto in the wild-card race. Tampa took two of three from Boston and then the Red Sox hosted Baltimore and predictably kicked the shit out of them, winning all three games. The sweep over the Orioles represented Boston’s first back-to-back wins since July 25 and 26. The Red Sox are now 69-51 and they’ll face the Yankees next. I have no idea who to root for there.
- Finally, there’s Oakland, who started off the week very well, sweeping Cleveland on the road, highlighted by a 17-0 victory. After that, though, the Blue Jays got some help from their old friends, the Texas Rangers. Oakland rolled into Arlington and dropped two of three. They’re now 68-50 and play four with the White Sox next.
So, add it all up and the Blue Jays are four-and-a-half games back of the wild-card, in which the Red Sox and A’s are tied, and they’re two games behind the Yankees.
Next up, the Blue Jays will kick off a pretty easy part of their schedule. They’re off Monday and then they travel to Washington to play the paltry Nationals for two games, with Alek Manoah and Jose Berrios starting. They’re off again on Thursday and then they host the Tigers for three at home.
The off days are important here because it gives George Springer some extra time off after he hurt himself crashing into the outfield wall on Saturday night in Seattle. The word on Springer is positive, as he’s apparently just day-to-day with a mild ankle strain. Of course, given the way the Blue Jays have spoken about injuries this year and how “it’s fine” turns into multiple months on the Injured List, I won’t stop holding my breath until I see him on the field…
INJURY UPDATE: George Springer has a left ankle injury (mild strain). X-rays negative. He’s day-to-day
Springer reassured manager Charlie Montoyo in his office:
“Man, I’ll be all right.” #BlueJays
— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) August 15, 2021
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In other injury news, the Blue Jays might get lefty reliever Tim Mayza back for their series in Washington. That would be huge because Brad Hand hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire and the team doesn’t currently have a lockdown lefty to go to late in games.
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