Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports Blue Jays (10-9) vs Padres (11-10) After a very strong home stand, the Blue Jays hit the road again, heading to San Diego for the first time since 2013 to take on the Padres. It’s a west coast game, so be prepared for late evening baseball with the game set to start at 9:40 ET. Blue Jays’ Starter Yariel Rodríguez will make his second Major League start, looking to follow up on what was a pretty impressive debut. Limited to just 3.2 innings as he is not stretched out, Rodríguez faced 16 batters, surrendering 1 run on 4 hits. He walked 2, struck out 6 and gave up ..read more

Former Blue Jays, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Ray, Gianst, Padres, Astros and Red Sox outfielder Jose Cruz, Jr. turns 50 today (which makes me feel old). Jose was a good player but never became the star we figured he’d be. However, considering we picked him up from the Mariners for a couple of middle reliever types, Mike Timlin and Paul Spoljaric, he did pretty well for us. He was a 30/30 guy in 2001, with 34 homers and 32 steals; the following year, he dropped to 18 homers and 7 steals. With the Blue Jays, he played 698 games and hit .250/.331/.462 with 122 home runs, good for 14th on o ..read more

Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images The Jays are on an off-day, and we are 19 games into the season—more than 10% of the season is done. So, I thought I’d ask for your early-season thoughts about the Jays. What is better than you thought, what is worse, and how you feel about the team Offensively, there are only a couple of guys who are really doing much better than my expectations: Justin Turner has been much better than I expected. Cavan Biggio is off to a nice start, something that I haven’t come to expect. Daulton Varsho, especially in this last week, has been very good with the back. And ..read more

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports That one hurts. We finally got the good Gausman, some hitters are breaking out of slumps, and the cavalry who were supposed to ride in and save the bullpen give it away. The series win is great, but with a sweep in the Jays’ grasp until the Yankees were down to their last two outs it’s not at all satisfying. Luckily, tomorrow is an off day, and hopefully a trip to sunny San Diego will improve the vibes. After a rough start to the season, Kevin Gausman fought his way into a bounce back outing. He started off in a jam, walking two and giving up a line drive single ..read more

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images Because I cannot look more than a day ahead, and I tend to say yes when asked to do things, I’m busy for most of today and will miss much of today’s game. Day games on a Wednesday are just wrong. But the Jays can sweep the Yankees today if Kevin Gausman pitches more like Kevin Gausman. The Yankees have Marcus Stroman starting, which hurts me. I liked him, and then he turned Evil. Cavan Biggio gets his first start at third base, and Davis Schneider plays second. I would do the opposite, but it likely wouldn’t make a difference. Today's Lineups YANKEES BLU ..read more

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports Yankees (12-6) vs Blue Jays (10-8) The Blue Jays wrap up their series with the Yankees this afternoon, looking to sweep the Yankees out of town. Get your brooms and excuses to get out of commitments ready early today, as the game is set to start at 3:07 ET. Blue Jays’ Starter Kevin Gausman will once again look to find any semblance of success in his early season. Through three starts now, he has thrown just 9.1 innings, facing a bit of an innings limit due to a severely limited spring training, but also getting knocked out early due to ineffectiveness and hi ..read more

Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images Yankees 4 Blue Jays 5 My two favourite things: Jays winning, Yankees losing. They are best when I can have both in one game. Yusei Kikuchi was terrific. We’ve had three terrific starts in a row—actually four. I wasn’t counting Rodriguez’s start because he didn’t pitch deep into the game, but he was very good. Kikuchi pitched 6 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts. The run against shouldn’t have happened. Giancarlo Stanton hit a hard grounder to Bo Bichette’s right, which Bo should have made a play on. Originally, it was called a h ..read more

Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports Let's defeat Evil again. Today's Lineups YANKEES BLUE JAYS Anthony Volpe - SS George Springer - RF Juan Soto - RF Vladimir Guerrero - 1B Aaron Judge - CF Bo Bichette - SS Giancarlo Stanton - DH Justin Turner - DH Anthony Rizzo - 1B Davis Schneider - LF Gleyber Torres - 2B Danny Jansen - C Alex Verdugo - LF Ernie Clement - 3B Jose Trevino - C Isiah Kiner-Falefa - 2B Oswaldo Cabrera - 3B Daulton Varsho - CF Carlos Rodon - LHP Yusei Kikuchi - LHP GO JAYS GO ..read more

Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images So we have roster moves: Jordan Romano and Erik Swanson have been activated from the IL. Nate Pearson has been sent to Buffalo (Why? The guy is throwing great). Mitch White has been DFAed. White was throwing harder this season. He has a 5.40 ERA in 10 innings, with 10 hits, 4 walks, and 6 strikeouts. I think he’s been passed by by a few pitchers who could field the long relief role if needed. Pearson has a 0.00 ERA in 6.1 innings, with 4 hits, 3 walks, and 9 strikeouts. I don’t know. If at all possible, I’d have kept him with the Jays. A guy who could pitch ..read more

Photo by Kevin Sousa/Getty Images Though interrupted by frequent bouts of uncooperative weather, it was ultimately a good week for the Blue Jays system with not one, but two clean org sweeps as on both Tuesday and Sunday all rungs combined for perfect 5-0 marks. The latter was salvaged by an improbable and rally by the Vancouver Canadians, down 7-3 with none out and two out in the 9th before seven straight batters reached, with Nick Goodwin blooping a ball just past the range of a diving right fielder to walk it off. This was after they gave up their own f-spot in the 6th inning on two bases l ..read more