Blue Jays Series Preview: Time to Knockout the Orioles

By Jeff Morten |

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How does that song go? Two out of three ain’t bad? Well aside from being a catchy Meatloaf tune it succinctly shows how the Blue Jays treated the Yankees and the Red Sox during their visits to the Rogers Centre. The starting pitching held up pretty well in the wins and in the 2 losses…well let’s just say it may have been expected of Marco Estrada and sort of expected of R.A. Dickey the way he has been pitching lately. His 68 home runs given up since being traded to the Blue Jays are the most given up by ANY pitcher in the major leagues. Overall, the Blue Jays have given up more than 6 runs in a game 12 times already this year…

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The Orioles have been on a bit of a road journey since April 29 due to the goings on in Baltimore. This will be their first series back since the riots caused them to play in front of an empty stadium and they have gone 4-6 in that time. You know they are going to be fired up and no one more so than Adam Jones who has hit barely over .200 the last week. Look for him to break out again in the familiar confines of Camden Yards and against a team he owns in the Blue Jays.

So how do the match-ups shake out between the Orioles and the Blue Jays?

Next: Game 1: Will Estrada be better the second time around?

May 5, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Marco Estrada (25) throws a pitch during the first inning in a game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports

Game 1: Marco Estrada (1-1, 2.93 ERA) vs Ubaldo Jimenez (2-2, 2.36 ERA) 7:05 EDT

Marco Estrada did exactly as some expected him to do in his first start…get lit up and give up a home run. 4 earned in less than 5 innings is not what the Blue Jays were counting on though. Hopefully he can give more in this game. If he continues to show he is ill equipped to be in the rotation it would make more sense to either bring Daniel Norris back up or see if perhaps Randy Wolf or Johan Santana is ready for a whirl.

Ubaldo Jimenez has been fantastic so far this season. In three of his starts he gave up 0 runs and in the other 2 it was 4 and 3. His K:BB is above average (23:10) and there is definitely room for improvement. His batting average against is a paltry .174 and his GO/AO rate is an even 2. Almost a K an inning and a great ground ball rate? With the defense behind him these numbers are to be expected.

Next: Mr. May Mark Buehrle looks for the magic touch

May 6, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays pitcher

Mark Buehrle

(56) delivers a pitch against New York Yankees at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Game 2: Mark Buehrle (4-2, 6.00 ERA) vs Chris Tillman (2-4, 6.25 ERA)

Here’s hoping Buehrle is able to build off his last start where he gave up 1 run in 5 innings of a victory against the Yankees. It would be great to see him go at least 6 innings…something he has yet to do this season. He has given up a plethora of hits this season and his ERA is atrocious but there he sits with a winning record thanks to the vaunted offense of the Blue Jays.

Chris Tillman has a record more reflective of his bad ERA…his offense hasn’t bailed him out much yet. He has given up more than a hit per inning and has almost as many walks as strikeouts (18:23). Tillman has been a force the last couple years for the Orioles so either he is having a heck of a down year overall or the afore mentioned poor starts were just blips on an otherwise great season…which oh which is it?

Next: Aaron Sanchez has been better, but needs to take another step forward.

May 8, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher

Aaron Sanchez

(41) pitches against the Boston Red Sox in the fourth inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Game 3: Aaron Sanchez (3-2, 3.62 ERA) vs Miguel Gonzalez (3-2, 3.57 ERA)

Sanchez gave up a fat load of zeroes his last start and seems to be slowly progressing in the right direction. It cannot be understated the amount of walks Sanchez is giving up…it’s an alarming rate (25:24 K:BB ratio). That is not the signs of a kid who has it figured out yet. Sanchez does give them a chance to win each time out and I guess as long as the walks don’t hurt you then they are justifiable and mere part of the ritual.

Miguel Gonzalez has been getting slightly worse from start to start. Before his last game against Yankees he had not given up more than 4 runs in any of his starts and his K:BB is about 2:1. He is nothing out of the ordinary and yet in his career his ERA has never been north of four. Seems like he is going to keep that streak going.

Next: How will this series play out?

May 10, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter

Jose Bautista

(19) hits a single against Boston Red Sox in the eighth inning at Rogers Centre. The Reds Sox won 6-3. Mandatory Credit: Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports

Predictions

Jose Bautista will fully break out and the new bullpen arms will be tested every night of this series. Ryan Tepera, Steve Delabar and the rest should finally solidify things and allow John Gibbons to use them freely and without question. Will Russell Martin swinging a hot stick and Edwin Encarnacion starting to come around, Joey Bats is due to break-out in a big way.

The Orioles are not going anywhere and Buck Showalter will make sure of that. The Orioles have a vastly under-performing rotation thus far, and they are due to rebound soon. The first game of the series begs to an Orioles win but look for the Blue Jays to ride a hot Aaron Sanchez and coming into form Mark Buehrle to a couple more wins…Jays taking 2 of 3…ain’t bad.

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