June 11, 2013; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies first baseman Jordan Pacheco (15) and center fielder Dexter Fowler (24) await to congratulate left fielder Carlos Gonzalez (5) for his home run in the fifth inning against the Washington Nationals at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

But the Jays have been getting good pitching for such a short period of time that you can’t help but ask if it’s for real.

After all even with the recent success of the starting rotation the Jays rotation still ranks 28th in baseball with a 4.99 ERA.

And the teams the Jays have been playing recently have either been slumping or rank low in most offensive categories.

So if you want to know if the Jays pitching is for real then believe me were about to find out on their upcoming 6 game home stand.

First they play the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies lead the National League in hitting. They have a 336 on base percentage, a ridiculous 453 slugging percentage with a 790 OPS!

Luckily for the Blue Jays the Rockies best hitter Troy Tulowitki recently got injured so they don’t have to deal with him. I hate having to take pleasure in an injury but we’re trying to get back into a playoff race around here! But the Rockies still have some great hitters in their lineup by the names of Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler, Michael Cuddyer, just to name a few.

Then the Orioles come to town after the Rockies. Blue Jays fans already know all about the Orioles offense since they’re a division rival the Jays play all the time but you may have not known they’re 2nd in the American League in hitting. They have a 325 on base percentage, also slugging a ridiculous 453 with a 778 OPS.

And you already know about their deep relentless lineup of Nick Markakis, Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Chris Davis and it just goes on and on and on.

Now obviously this home stand isn’t a 100% real test of the Jays pitching since Esmil Rogers and Chien-Ming Wang are just filling in until the real starters are back.

But those guys are trying to make it tough on the Jays to take them out of the rotation. And Johnson, Buehrle and Dickey are all looking to get back to pitching to their career norms.

They’ve all been doing that lately but with offensive juggernauts coming to town this home stand should be a great test to see if the Jays recent rotation success is for real.

If you can pitch against the big boys you can pitch against anybody.

Jun 12, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Adam Lind (left) celebrates his home run with third baseman Edwin Encarnacion (middle) and right fielder Rajai Davis (11) during the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

When you consider the fact that they were 11 games under 500 at different times in May, four games under 500 in mid-June is pretty impressive.

The Toronto Blue Jays horrible start might mean they lose more games than the 2012 team but you can already consider the 2013 team better.

Because the journey to 500 was helped by the fact that the Blue Jays currently have a 5 game winning streak going for the first time since the Civil War or July 2011 to be exact.

They’ve gone on a 5 game win streak in the 3rd month of the season. The 2012 squad failed to do that all season even when they were healthy.

Playoffs or not if any other Blue Jays team in the last 20 years started the season 10-21 there season would have been done a looooong time ago.

It’s also the first time the Jays have had a 4 game sweep on the road since last April when they did it to the Kansas City Royals.

It’s exciting until you remember if they lose the next game they’ll be 5 games below 500 and that’s frustrating as heck.

But as a Blue Jay fan you learn not to take even the smallest win streaks for granted because they’ve been so rare for the Jays in recent years.

Especially when a part of the 5 game win streak is a 4 game sweep of the Texas freaking Rangers in Texas.

It was hard to tell if the Blue Jays pitching really stepped up or if the Rangers offense was just in that big a slump. But either way the Rangers are very a good team that the Jays outscored 24-4. Usually you’d be happy to get out of an inning giving up just 4 runs to the Rangers because they’re offense can be that dynamic but you wouldn’t know that from watching this series.

The Jays have scored 31 runs during the 5 game win streak. They’ve also got at least 7 innings from their starting pitchers in 4 of those games. The other start was R.A. Dickey going 5.2 innings. One of the main reasons the Jays have gone so long without a decent win streak is their inability to get good starting pitching.

The Jays 5 game win streak is the currently the 2nd longest win streak in baseball behind only the San Diego Padres 6 game win streak.

The end game of course is to get over 500 and into contention but with the Blue Jays first 5 game win streak in almost 2 years they’re at least making progress.

July 9, 2011; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers teammates celebrate with left fielder Josh Hamilton (center, behind) at home plate following Hamilton

Then the Jays had a 4 game series against the Yankees in Yankee Stadium and got swept pushing their record to 9-17 which took the crazy panicking to reasonable panicking. I’m no mathematician but I think the Jays have played 500 baseball since then since they are still 8 games below 500 now.

That series against the Yankees was a good example of how a 4 game series against a good team in their home ball park when you’re already scuffling can really put a dent in your record.

That brings us to the Jays 4 game series against the Rangers in Texas.

Even though the Yankees swept the Jays in a 4 game series earlier this season I can’t even remember how they lost those games. But I’m still traumatized enough from the Jays getting swept in a 3 game series by Texas in Texas last season to remember it well.

Brandon Morrow was one of the hottest pitchers in baseball and the Rangers knocked him out of a game in the 1st inning. Henderson Alvarez gave up back to back to back homeruns. Josh Hamilton hit a walk off homerun in extra innings in a game where the Jays scored in the top of the inning.

As hopeless as the 2013 Blue Jays seem they really are a couple of hot stretches or extended win streaks away from at the very least being a late season threat to a wild card spot.

But the Rangers have a 60-35 record against the Jays at home and have beaten the Jays in 6 of their last 8 home games.

So if the April Yankees series and the Rangers series from last season are any indication the Jays better be on their A game against the Rangers in Texas or they could have the nail on the 2013 season coffin slammed shut.

May 29, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Esmil Rogers (32) pitches in the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

Fortunately Josh Johnson is back.

Chien-Ming-Wang earned the right to stick around by pitching into the 8th inning for just the 4th time this season by a Blue Jays starter. Someone that can eat up innings is important. If he gives up 5 runs in the process every time out the Jays will just have to put up with that until one of their real starters is back.

Hopefully Wang’s performance wasn’t a fluke so the Jays finally have some stability in their rotation for the first time in a while.

That leaves the last spot in the rotation. Unless the Jays have anything new up their sleeve Esmil Rogers or Chad Jenkins would be that starter.

Right now it’s Esmil Rogers.

According to Alex Anthopoulos the reason Jenkins isn’t in the big leagues is because the Jays want to have some depth in the minor leagues. They also felt Jenkins had some balls hit hard against him in his last start against San Diego. He had a decent start but that’s a trend that doesn’t usually lead to more success.

So should the Jays go with Rogers or Jenkins for the foreseeable future.

Jenkins has pitched at least 5 innings in all 6 of his big league starts.

Rogers longest start for the Jays has been 4 innings without his pitch count getting to 80. But there’s probably less chance that he gets hit around as much as Jenkins, assuming the Jays scouts know what they’re doing.

The Jays might want to develop Jenkins more in the minor leagues but he’s the better bet to give you innings. If the Jays really want to have depth in the minors it would make some sense to send Rogers to the minors so they can stretch him out as starter and see how he does when he has to throw 90 – 100 pitches.

Rogers will pitch less innings then Jenkins but he’s also more likely to be able to shut a team down for 3 or 4 innings. It’s just that the Jays bullpen has already been overworked like a motherf**ker this season and you can never guess when it’ll need some rest.

If the Jays use Jenkins they could also put Rogers back in the pen to help out that overworked bullpen.

Rogers and Jenkins both have an upside and downside to being in the Jays rotation. Until one of the real starters is back the Jays have to figure out which one has more upside.

May 30, 2012; Toronto, ON, CANADA; Toronto Blue Jays manager John Farrell (left) and assistant trainer Hap Hudson (right) help carry starting pitcher Brandon Morrow (center) after being hit hit by a line drive against the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Going into the game the Jays had a completely healthy starting rotation of Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Henderson Alvarez, Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison.

They also had a completely healthy starting lineup for that game of Brett Lawrie, Colby Rasmus, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Kelly Johnson, Yunel Escobar, David Cooper, J.P. Arencibia and Rajai Davis.

No you didn’t misread the previous sentence, Cooper and Rajai were in the starting lineup but it was because Lind and Eric Thames had been sent to the minor leagues because of poor performances not because of injuries.

Little did the Blue Jays or their fan base know that game would be one of the last times they could anticipate a game where they’d get to see the whole team healthy. The Jays haven’t been completely healthy since.

On June 11th, 2012 Brandon Morrow started for the Jays. He had to leave in the 1st inning because of a strain in his left oblique muscles. Blue Jays fans everywhere thought that was a big blow, now we’d kill for just one injury. Morrow didn’t return until late August.

Whatever the opposite of a fun fact is Morrow had 3 complete game shutouts at the time of his injury. The Jays haven’t even gotten one complete game shutout from their entire rotation this season! That puts the underperformance of the rotation this season into some perspective.

Drabek and Hutchison both got injured in their next starts and eventually had to have Tommy John Surgery and they both are still working their way back.

A little over a month later Bautista hurt his wrist and came off the DL for one game so he was basically gone from mid-July to the end of the season.

Then Lawrie and Arencibia hit the DL shortly after before coming back when the season was long lost. Rasmus, Lind, Johnson all spent time dealing with nagging injuries that kept them out of the lineup every now and then to.

The Jays started 2013 with Lawrie on the DL and Bautista was missing games with nagging injuries.

Lawrie’s already back on the DL along with Reyes, Happ and Morrow. Josh Johnson just came off the DL recently and Dickey has been dealing with neck and back problems for the majority of this season.

And these are just all the injuries the Jays have had with their starting position players and pitchers. I haven’t even talked about bench players like Rajai or relievers. Sergio Santos got injured last April and was out for the season and Santos got injured again this season. And Luis Perez needed Tommy John last season and is still working his way back. And Darren Oliver just came off the DL.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the Jays injuries in the last calendar year for their lack of success. I’m just saying an injured team is a more frustrating and less fun team to watch. Unfortunately the Jays have been just that for a year and counting.

Sep 6, 2011; Toronto, ON, Canada; Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dustin McGowan (29) against the Boston Red Sox at the Rogers Centre. The Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 14-0. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

The Toronto Blue Jays have optioned Todd Redmond back to the minor leagues and Dustin McGowan has been called up to the big leagues to pitch out of the bullpen.

McGowan hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since September 2011.

In fact he hasn’t pitched much at all since September 2011 because of constantly suffering different injuries.

And before September 2011 McGowan hadn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2008! That was also because he kept suffering through injuries.

It’s because of McGowan’s complete inability to stay healthy for such a looooong time that a lot of Blue Jays fans are frustrated by the team not giving up on him by now.

Well there’s a reason the Jays haven’t given up on him yet and it’s not just for the sake of being nice because they felt bad for him.

McGowan was and is an elite pitcher.

Even after all McGowan’s multiple injuries and surgeries he STILL has the best stuff on the Blue Jays. Better than Josh Johnson. Better than Brandon Morrow. Better than Sergio Santos. Side Thought: HOW ARE ALL THE JAYS BEST PITCHERS THE MOST INJURY PRONE!!?! That can’t just be a whacky coincidence could it?

In 46 starts between 2007 and 2008 McGowan put up a 5.7 WAR pitching in the AL East. R.A. Dickey put up a 6.7 WAR between 2011 and 2012 in 65 starts!

Elite pitchers don’t grow on trees which is why the Jays have stuck with McGowan all these years despite his long injury history.

The Jays are hoping their patience will finally pay off with McGowan returning to the big leagues to help a bullpen that hasn’t needed a lot of help this season.

Unfortunately McGowan’s probably going to have spend the rest of his career in the bullpen because his arm probably can’t handle being stretched out for an extended period of time.

Even in the bullpen you’d have to imagine he won’t be pitching on back to back days to keep his arm in check.

But hey if he can finally stay healthy, finally build his arm strength up and finally become the ace starting pitcher the Jays thought they had in the late 2000’s then that would be great to. And that’s not that crazy considering he’s only 31 years old now.

You’d like to hope McGowan is back for good now even though his career history would suggest he’ll be back on the DL before your next blink. Either way it should be great to see McGowan pitching for the Jays in the big leagues again.

Apr 20, 2013; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers relief pitcher Jason Frasor (44) throws to the Seattle Mariners during the ninth inning at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The Texas Rangers won 5-0. Mandatory Credit: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

After all middle relievers are the most taken for granted players on a baseball team. No one talks about them unless they’re coming off a horrible outing.

So you usually wouldn’t even anticipate an ex-middle reliever on your favorite team making his first appearance back at the home ball park.

Well not just any ex-middle reliever is coming back to Toronto in another jersey.

It’s the 5’9, 180 pound, hard throwing, most appearances by ANY Toronto Blue Jays player in franchise history, the human rain delay himself Jason Frasor!

Frasor signed with the Rangers in January. That was long after the Jays had already done all their offseason wheeling and dealing.

Most Jays/Frasor fans were sad to see him go. He had been a member of the Jays since 2004 and he could have finally pitched for a Blue Jays team that was going to be a contender. Side Thought: HAHAHA! (As I cry myself to sleep every night)

As killer as the Jays bullpen has been this season it would have been nice to keep Frasor around. But he’s in a better place now, pitching for a real “World Series favorite”.

Frasor will always be remembered for having well over 453 appearances for the Jays but there’s more to him than that.

He’s a small guy by baseball players standards at 5’9 and 180 pounds like mentioned earlier. It was because of his size it was always amazing to see him come out of the bullpen pumping fastballs up to the mid 90’s. And that was from watching him play every day as a Jays fan. It had to seem even weirder for other teams that saw him come out of the bullpen for the Jays.

Frasor also used to walk around the mound after every pitch so some people called him a human rain delay. His innings would take a lot longer than usual which was annoying to some people. But you always knew it was a good time to go to the washroom during his inning because you’d only miss 3 pitches. (I might be exaggerating a little).

Frasor had a lot of good times in Toronto and some bad times. Now he’s back in another uniform. Frasor should get into at least one game in the Rangers series so Blue Jays fans should and probably will cheer him on.

May 31, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; General view of the scoreboard during the 14th inning stretch during the San Diego Padres game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

You know the team with the 20th worst pitching in baseball?

On one hand it’s shocking because the Blue Jays offense had been so hot lately. On the other hand maybe the Jays offense hasn’t been hot lately but it’s gone unnoticed.

Sometimes in life you don’t notice something until its painfully obvious.

On Wednesday the Blue Jays scored 3 runs in 2 innings against good Braves starter Kris Medlen. Not an easy thing to do.

But Medlen had to leave after the 2nd inning with an injury and the Jays didn’t score a run in the last 7 innings of the game. The Braves have as good a bullpen as anyone so it’s easy to overlook the Jays not scoring. Especially with the shocking pitching performance they got that day from Esmil Rogers, Juan Perez and Neil Wagner overshadowing the Jays lack of run production.

On Thursday the Jays faced Braves starting pitcher Mike Minor. Minor was one of the hottest pitchers to start 2013 so again it was easy to overlook the Jays not scoring runs against him. They eventually scored 3 runs against Minor in the 6th inning. But the runs they did score had more to do with the Braves sloppy defense that inning then the Jays bats really coming to life. They didn’t score the rest of the game.

So if you’re keeping track the Blue Jays had scored 6 runs in 18 innings against the Braves. Or to be more specific they scored 6 runs in 3 out of the last 18 innings going into the Padres series.

It’s easy to not notice a 2 game sample size but man oh man when a bad trend from 2 games continues it might be a legitimate slump.

Now it’s a 3 game sample size including the first game against the Padres. The Jays have scored 9 runs in the last 35 innings. Or to be more specific again they’ve scored 9 runs in 5 out of the last 35 innings!

It’s just the last 3 games but when the offense is that bad for even that short a time it might be safe to say it’s in a slump.

May 25, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista (19) at bat against the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre. Baltimore defeated Toronto 6-5. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

If you’re a fan of the Toronto Blue Jays and don’t completely hate your job/school it should be OGNIF – Oh God No It’s Friday.

That’s because the Blue Jays are 1-7 on Fridays this season and have lost the last 6 Friday games.

For all I know the Jays could have a really great or bad record on another day and I just haven’t noticed.

But when the Jays keep losing games on a day that’s so sacred in our society it sticks out like a sore thumb.

One of the reasons I’ve noticed the Jays losing every Friday is the majority of my stupid friends don’t watch baseball and have a hang up about “wasting” their Friday nights watching Jays games. So I tend to miss Friday night games but luckily with our modern day cell phones we can check the scores. The Jays always seemed to be losing when we do so I get a lot of “you’re missing the right game”.

I figured it just had to be a coincidence until I looked up how the Jays have been doing on Fridays.

Now obviously it’s not just a weird consequence that the Jays have been losing on Fridays.

It might have something to do with the fact that they’ve played AL East teams for 6 of the 8 Fridays this season. Or that they’ve played against ace pitchers like Hiroki Kuroda, Jon Lester, King Felix. Or that they’ve given starts to pitchers that have no business making starts in the big leagues like Ricky Romero and Sean Nolin.

With the Jays playing the lowly San Diego Padres tonight you have to like their chances of picking up their 2nd Friday win of the season.

If you’re one of those people whose mood can be affected by your sports teams success or lack of success the Jays have not been helping to get your weekend going in the right direction.

Hopefully the Jays can turn their Friday fortunes around for the rest of the season and stop messing with the start of their fan bases weekend.

May 29, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman (5) is caught in a run down by Toronto Blue Jays relief pitcher Esmil Rogers (32) in the second inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

The Blue Jays have had some unexpected wins this season.

Mark Buehrle gave up 7 runs in the 3rd inning in a game against the Rays earlier this season. That put the Jays down 7-0 at the time. Buehrle followed that inning up with 3 shutout innings and the Jays bullpen didn’t give up a run. The Jays came back to win that game 8-7.

Just this past Sunday the Jays were trailing the Orioles 5-2 going to the bottom of the 9th. The Orioles closer had been struggling lately but he’s still one of the better closers in baseball. The Jays stunned everyone by scoring 4 runs to walk it off. It was especially stunning since Kawasaki got the game winning double with the Jays down to 2 outs still losing 5-4 with runners on the corners.

But those shocking wins pale in comparison to yesterday’s win.

The Jays had a reliever start a game against one of the best teams in baseball with one of the most stacked lineups in a national league park where bullpens already get used more. And the Jays had just called up what most fans probably thought were Triple A scrubs to fill 3 freaking spots in the bullpen.

You tend to assume guys you’ve never heard of are scrubs.

Not only did the Jays win a game that I would have bet millions on them losing if I was a multi-millionaire but they shut out the Atlanta freaking Braves.

It was the only the 2nd time the Jays had shut out an opponent all season. The first time was all the way back in the first week of the season, April 6th, when J.A. Happ and the bullpen shutout the Red Sox.

The team with starting pitchers R.A. Dickey, Josh Johnson, Brandon Morrow, Mark Buehrle and a shutdown bullpen got its 2nd shutout with Esmil Rogers, Juan Perez and Neil Wagner pitching the first 8 innings.

Rogers gave the Jays 3 shutout innings before needing to get pulled in the 4th inning. That wasn’t that surprising since Rogers had given the Jays multiple inning shutout outings out of the bullpen already this season.

But then Juan Perez came in and Blue Jays fans everywhere hoped this scrub could just give the Jays a decent outing. Well that scrub retired all 8 hitters he faced while striking out BJ Upton, Andrelton Simmons, Justin Upton, and Freddie Freeman.

If he keeps that up he’s welcomed to stay in the big league bullpen. Perez’s performance probably made Jays relievers without job security sweat a little bit. (Brad Lincoln I’m looking in your direction.) If anything we learned the Jays should target left handed relievers whose last name is Perez since Luis Perez pitched so well last season before getting injured.

After Perez another thought to be a scrub Neil Wagner pitched 2 shutout innings while only giving up one hit. That was a little more surprising because you couldn’t help but wonder why the Jays didn’t use one of their real relievers to pitch the 8th inning with a 3 run lead.

I think I can speak for the whole Jays fan base when I say we were just waiting for the Jays to get blown out with the pitchers they had on the mound all night. For once the Jays not living up to expectations was a good thing.