It's a good thing for the Blue Jays that New York Yankees management waited until Aug. 3 to promote Gary Sanchez from triple-A, otherwise there may have been little or no talk of meaningful games in late September in Toronto.
It's also good the Jays' starting pitching got its act together in Seattle this week, considering the promising catcher is wielding a hot bat again after cooling off somewhat following a torrid start to his major league career.
Sanchez, who needed only 45 games to hit his first 19 home runs to become the fastest to do so in major league history, and the Yankees open a four-game series at the Rogers Centre on Friday at 7:07 p.m. ET.
Sanchez has 19 HRs in 187 plate appearances (1 per 9.84) for Yankees this season. In minors, he had 99 HRs in 2712 career PAs (1 every 27.4)
— @JackCurryYES
Sanchez torched Toronto pitching for seven hits in 10 at-bats, including three homers and five runs batted in during a three-game series loss at Yankee Stadium in mid-August. But Blue Jays pitchers adjusted three weeks later, limiting the 23-year-old to a pair of hits in eight at-bats in New York's three-game sweep.
Francisco Liriano, who starts Friday, has faced the rookie slugger once and struck him out, but Sanchez entered Thursday night's series finale at Tampa Bay with a .423 batting average, five homers and 13 RBIs over the past week.
Clinging to lead
More important to the Jays and their fans, though, is the American League wild-card standings as Toronto awoke Friday on top, leading Detroit by one game, Baltimore by 1 ½ and Houston by 2 1/2.
This weekend, Detroit, Baltimore and Houston play the Kansas City Royals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Angels, respectively, all of whom are out of the playoff picture.
The rival Yankees are four games in arrears of the Blue Jays and, if nothing else, would be happy to play spoiler this weekend.
Playoff chances for the following AL teams: Jays 75.9%, Baltimore 43.6%, Detroit 35.1%, Astros 28%, Seattle 14%, Yankees 3.3%,
— @Buster_ESPN
Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada and 20-game winner J.A. Happ will start Saturday (4:07 p.m.), Sunday (1:07 p.m.) and Monday (7:07 p.m.), respectively.
The Blue Jays catch a break and won't have to face New York's best pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, who has a lower forearm strain and has been scratched for Monday's start. In his last nine outings, Tanaka is 7-0 with a 2.28 ERA while opponents are hitting just .223.
The Yankees' projected starters for the first three games are Bryan Mitchell (1-1, 3.75), CC Sabathia (8-12, 4.19) and Michael Pineda (6-11, 4.89) with Monday's starter unknown.
Shaky trio
Mitchell hurled five shutout innings versus Toronto in his season debut on Sept. 5 but Boston touched him up for four runs (three earned) over 4 2/3 innings in his last start.
Sabathia, who is winless in five starts, struck out 12 against the Blue Jays on Aug. 17 but yielded seven runs on nine hits in six innings.
Pineda has been inconsistent all season, though he blanked Toronto in a five-inning stint on Aug. 16. In his last start, the right-hander struck out 11 and held Tampa Bay to two runs over 5 1/3 innings.
Seattle highlights …
- Estrada, Happ and Sanchez each turned in solid starts and gave the Jays a chance to win. Estrada's seven-inning, one-hit gem was very encouraging, given he's pitching with a herniated disc in his back.
- The bullpen allowed a single run in 9 1/3 innings over the final two games.
- The offence came to life Tuesday with a 10-spot, a common theme last season, and delivered six home runs in the series. Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson snapped long homer droughts.
And lowlights …
- Bad defence continues to plague the Blue Jays, who have committed 16 errors in a 19-game stretch. Donaldson's throwing error in Wednesday's 12th inning on a groundball by Guillermo Heredia allowed the outfielder to move to second base, move to third on a sacrifce and score on a Robinson Cano walk-off sacrifice fly.
- Toronto continues to struggle with runners in scoring position, going hitless in four at-bats Wednesday.
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