AL East Round Up: Mother’s Day Edition

Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Toronto Blue Jays

The past week has been marked by a 5 game win streak for the Blue Jays. After a stretch of blown games and disappointing outings, the Jays have put together a nice little run over the last week. In doing so, they have pulled themselves out of the basement in the AL East. That probably is more of a statement about just how, for lack of a better word, “Meh” this division has been.

Regardless, the Jays have been led by their rotation. Mark Buehrle (6-1, 1.91 ERA) continues to shine. What is odd is that he isn’t really “wowing” anyone. He’s just pitching. Plain and simple. J.A. Happ tried to prove his value when he made his first start of the season and threw 5 scoreless innings…aaaand then he blew it on Saturday against the Angels. Dustin McGowan looks to have figured out his diabetes related fatigue. Which is good because there are those who felt he may be pitching for his spot with Marcus Stroman being called up.

Speaking of the #StroShow…a big Celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five for him as he picked up his first MLB win in Philadelphia Tuesday night. I’ve been really excited to see Stroman take the hill for the Blue Jays. Since being called up, he hasn’t looked out of place. Before you scream “small sample size” (Thank you to whoever coined THAT phrase), I am aware that he has only pitched 3 1/3 innings. But, in that time, he’s given up 2 hits and struck out 2 batters. He hasn’t walked anyone.

In other pitching news, it looks like Brandon Morrow got some good news. According to Gregor Chisholm at MLB.com, Morrow should be able to avoid surgery on his right index finger’s torn tendon sheath. They expect he’ll be back around the All Star break.

Here are some other tidbits regarding the Blue Jays:

–R.A. Dickey has put out a children’s book entitled Knuckleball Ned. The book is meant to help children with bullying. You can find it at Amazon.com. They describe it as “a funny anti-bullying picture book with an adorable baseball character that kids will love”

-Brett Lawrie is set to come back to the lineup after resting his legs, Adam Lind has come back to the big league club. Juan Francisco (J-Frank) is on fire at the plate, Edwin Encarnacion is…well…Edwin Encarnacion. There appears to be a logjam in Toronto causing some to question whether Lawrie should move to 2nd. It sparked a debate from Jays Journal’s Ryan Mueller (@MuellerRyan11).

-Celebratory Brett Lawrie High Five to Edwin Encarnacion who hit his 200th career homerun on Thursday against the Phillies.

-I’m going to wrap up my bit on the Jays with THIS. The Blue Jays made a dream come true for one 10 yr old boy with autism and mitochondrial disease. He was on the field for batting practice. Classy.