Jays Getting Tested Early and Often

Mar 16, 2014; Port Charlotte, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher David Price (14) pitches against the Boston Red Sox at Charlotte Sports Park. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY SportsMost sane baseball fans would agree that what your team does in April isn’t any indication of how the season is going to go.

But with the Toronto Blue Jays having five series with AL East teams in April, it could be a very good indication of how the season is going to go.

We all know that the Jays start the season with four games against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field before heading home for three games against the New York Yankees.

The “joke” from a lot of Jays fans is that schedule means the Jays are going to start the season 0-7. Since the Jays haven’t won a series at the Trop in 7 years and went 5-14 against the Yankees last season, that might end up being reality and not a joke.

Cynical as that is to say, I don’t think anyone’s expecting the Jays to leave Tampa with three wins. Heck if they did it would single-handedly be enough for me to think they have a chance of contending this season. Yes judging them off the first series of the season is as crazy as it gets but the way things have gone at the Trop the last seven years that would show a gigantic amount of progress.

Then the Jays get the Yankees at home. The five wins the Jays got against the Yankees last season came at home which is a little comforting. Having to face Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda (not sure if that’s the order) and C.C. Sabathia isn’t comforting but that’s life in the AL East.

Then after playing the Houston Astros the Jays hit the road for three games against the Baltimore Orioles. So by the end of that series, on just April 13th, we should already have a pretty good taste of how the Jays stack up against the AL East.

But just in case were not sure how they stack up against the AL East by then a week later they play the Orioles again followed by a series against the Red Sox.

So the Jays are going to have to show what there made of early this season. And with their rough schedule this season might end up being a sprint as much as a marathon.