Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports Last night went well. Really, in spite of a couple of blown sweep opportunities the last week and a half has gone well. The offence isn’t doing a ton, but it’s doing enough, and the pitchers (a couple guys in the bullpen excepted) have been razor sharp. Tonight, Kevin Gausman (0-2, 8.16 in 14.1 innings) will look to build on a decent start last time out against the Yankees after a couple of meltdowns. On the other side, Michael Wacha (1-2, 3.75 in 24.0 innings) is doing Michael Wacha stuff, limiting walks and reliably providing six decent innings. Not much by w ..read more

Photograph by Julian Avram/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Things are pretty good with the team, but some are off to a poor start: Alejandro Kirk is hitting .179/.277/.196 with one extra-base hit, 8 walks and 10 strikeouts. He had such a good spring. His defence, as always, has been good but is missing at the plate. Vladimir Guerrero is hitting .230/.350/.368, a 114 OPS+, but we wanted better. 3 home runs isn’t enough. He has 15 walks and 19 strikeouts. Bo Bichette is hitting .241/.297/.361 with 1 home run, 6 walks and 14 strikeouts. Of course, there was the big triple yesterday. Kevin Kierm ..read more

Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/VIEWpress And other developments in the Blue Jays farm system Success-wise, the past week like like an inverted pyramid throughout the Blue Jays organization. While the big league team took two three game sets to go 4-2 and Buffalo did the same at the Triple-A level, the rest posted losing marks. Vancouver and Dunedin were the mirror image each going 2-4, and New Hampshire dropped five straight to Portland after a decisive first game win. There were however plenty of noteworthy performances and developments worth highlighting. What follows are some notes and observ ..read more

Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports Blue Jays (13-10) vs Royals (13-10) The Blue Jays opened this series the right way last night, taking the first game of the four game series with a solid 5-3 win. They’ll try to make it two in a row tonight, with first pitch once again set for 7:40 ET. Blue Jays’ Starter Kevin Gausman will make his fifth start of the year for the Jays, looking to build off his best start of the year as he is ramping up his workload. After throwing just 69 pitches in his first start of the year, Gausman made it up to 101 in his last outing against the Yankees, making it seem pre ..read more

Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images Jays 5 Royals 3 I’m growing to like this ‘get ahead early, hold on at the end’ version of the Blue Jays. I’m also loving that guys who were hated, are doing terrific. We like to think we know baseball, but when guys with potential do poorly, we tend to miss the potential and think they will always be like this. Today’s first case in point is Yusei Kikuchi. Yusei threw 6 innings and allowed just 5 hits, 2 earned, no walks, with 4 strikeouts. He did give up a two-run homer in the 6th, but he was terrific again. His ERA is now 2.28, which, if it weren’t for Jose Ber ..read more

Photo by Kyle Rivas/MLB Photos via Getty Images The start of a series with the Royals, who are playing very good baseball. Today we have Yusei Kikuchi (1-1, 2.08 in 21.2 innings) vs. Bradley Singer (2-0, 1.54 in 23.1 innings). We might have trouble scoring today. Singer was a second-round draft pick by the Jays in 2015, but they couldn’t agree on a signing bonus. The Royals took him in the first round in 2018. There is some bad Jays’ news: Blue Jays LHP prospect Brandon Barriera (elbow) is scheduled visit Dr. Keith Meister in Texas this week, per club Barriera was Blue Jays' first-round pic ..read more

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports Blue Jays (12-10) vs Royals (13-9) The Blue Jays, winners of four straight series, head to Kansas City to take on the surprisingly good Royals. The first game of this four game series gets underway this evening with a 7:40 ET start. Blue Jays’ Starter Early season success story Yusei Kikuchi heads to the mound for the Jays, riding a string of four pretty good starts where he has gotten stronger in each one. After a rough opening series loss in Tampa bay, Kikuchi has gone 5.1, 6 and 6 innings in his subsequent starts, not allowing more than a run or more than 4 ..read more

Photo by Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images Jimmy Key turns 63 today. Jimmy Key was born in Huntsville, Alabama. He was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1982 amateur draft by the Jays out of Clemson University. He quickly rose to the Majors, making the Jays out of spring training in 1984. They had him pitch out of the bullpen that season. Back then, the Jays tended to use first-year pitchers in the pen, figuring that was the best way to teach them how to pitch in the majors (I still think it is a good plan, but it doesn’t happen anymore). He quickly became part of a closer-by-committee grou ..read more

Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports Jays 3 Padres 6 This is just a placeholder until I get to my computer. I was supposed to play squash but got stood up, so I had to watch the end of the game in the bar. The Padres scored in weird ways: Springer overran a Manny Machado single, allowing a run to score from first. Twice bases-loaded walks brought in a Padres run. Trevor Richards and Nate Pearson had little idea of the strike zone. A run scored on bases-loaded Catcher’s Interference. A Xander Boegaerts homer gave the Padres a more normal run. The Jays scored on solo homers from Ernie Clement and Da ..read more

Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images The Jays are looking for a sweep again. They are off to a better start than I expected, considering the long road trip and the quality of the teams they have played. Unfortunately, the Yankees and Orioles are also off to a good start. Today’s lineup, no IKF today. Today's Lineups BLUE JAYS PADRES George Springer - RF Xander Bogaerts - 2B Vladimir Guerrero - 1B Fernando Tatis - RF Bo Bichette - SS Jake Cronenworth - 1B Justin Turner - DH Manny Machado - DH Daulton Varsho - LF Jurickson Profar - LF Davis Schneider - 2B Ha-Seong Kim - SS Danny ..read more