Blue Jays Series Preview: A’s landing hot at the Dome

The Toronto Blue Jays welcome the 9-7 Oakland Athletics to the Rogers Centre for a three-game series beginning Friday night, but the timing isn’t ideal.

Oakland enters the series red-hot after winning their last five games, including a three-game sweep of the New York Yankees by a combined score of 15-7. Their 7-3 win in the finale represented just the second time the A’s have eclipsed five runs scored in a game scored, however, as they’ve been riding one of the league’s strongest pitching staff through the first three weeks.

Toronto is coming off a 3-4 road trip that included a series split in Boston and a pair of deflating losses to wrap up their series in Baltimore. Both of those losses can effectively be put on passed balls, and the inability of Toronto’s offence to string together offensive bursts is holding back a surprisingly steady rotation.

Aaron Sanchez will get the ball in game one and face A’s ace Sonny Gray, who has opened the season 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA. Left-hander J.A. Happ and Toronto ace Marcus Stroman will follow in the two weekend matinees.

Across the Diamond: Oakland A’s

This is shaping up to be a battle of strengths versus (apparent) weaknesses. Oakland’s staff versus Toronto’s scuffling offence. The Jays’ pitchers against the A’s bats.

Among Oakland batters with 20 at-bats or more, Stephen Vogt leads the pack in terms of OPS with a mark of .787 (.280 AVG). Former Jay Danny Valencia leads the team in batting average at .296, but has just been placed on the 15-day Disabled List with a left hamstring strain. That’s good news for Happ, as Valencia is notoriously strong against southpaws.

Marcus Semien (4 HR) and Josh Reddick (3) have provided most of Oakland’s power up to this point, and Reddick is tied with Jed Lowrie for the team lead in RBIs with 10. As a team, the A’s rank 26th in the league with 52 runs scored and 28th with a team OBP of .283.

As a rotation, Oakland pitchers have a cumulative ERA of 2.69 that puts them fourth in baseball. They’ve also allowed an opponent’s batting average of just .231, ranking them 7th.

Next: Game 1: Sanchez looks to remain hot in opener

Game 2:  Saturday, April 23rd  –  1:07 p.m. ET

J.A. Happ (2-0, 1.89 ERA) vs.
Chris Bassitt (0-0, 2.79 ERA)

Speaking of pleasant surprises in the bullpen, J.A. Happ has been excellent through his first three starts. After signing a three-year, $36 million contract early in free agency, Toronto hoped that they were signing the Pittsburgh version of Happ, not the Seattle version from earlier in 2015. So far, the results are encouraging.

The lanky lefty is coming off back-to-back wins against the Red Sox and Yankees. In his most recent start at Fenway, Happ lasted 7.0 strong innings while allowing just one earned run on four hits while striking out four.

His ability to pitch 20.0 innings through his first three outings, all of which have been quality starts, is a welcome sight to the Blue Jays. Throughout his career, Happ’s inability to work deep into games has been a primary weakness.

Facing Happ will be Chris Bassitt, who made his Major League debut in 2014 with the Chicago White Sox before coming over to Oakland as part of the Jeff Samardzija trade.

He’s pitched well in 2016, outside of his opening start at home against those same White Sox. On April 5th, Bassitt lasted 5.1 innings while allowing four earned runs on eight hits.

Next time out, Bassitt managed to spin seven shutout innings in Seattle against the Mariners despite walking five batters. His most recent outing against the Kansas City Royals saw Bassitt allow two earned runs on five hits while striking out five.

Bassitt is forcing ground balls at a higher rate this season, nearly 55%, and will top out around 94 MPH with his fastball.

Next: Game 3: The Stro Show in the finale

Game 3:  Sunday, April 24th  –  1:07 p.m. ET

Marcus Stroman (3-0, 4.13 ERA) vs.
Eric Surkamp (0-1, 3.68 ERA)

The Blue Jays will face journeyman Eric Surkamp in the final game of the series. The 28-year-old lefty has is currently on his fourth Major League roster in four years, after pitching for the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Francisco Giants since 2013.

This could be Toronto’s best bet for an offensive outburst, as Surkamp has yet to work deep into a ball game or post strong strikeout numbers in any of his starts. Through 14.2 innings, he has struck out six batters and walked eight.

In his last outing against the Yankees in New York, Surkamp pitched 5.2 innings while allowing two earned runs on seven hits and walking three.

Marcus Stroman makes his fifth start of the year for Toronto looking for his fourth win, but he’s still looking for a true shutdown start. His ERA is slightly inflated from the five earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Boston Red Sox on April 8th, but he hasn’t posted that shutout start with high strikeout totals just yet.

Next: How the Beltre deal impacts Jays, Bautista, Encarnacion

His ground balls forced have been absolutely excellent, though. Stroman’s sinking fastball has produced steady work for the infield and an incredible 61.8% ground ball rate. With that, perhaps the strikeout totals won’t be terribly necessary.

Stroman’s 4.13 ERA is matched with a more impressive 0.99 WHIP, and with the limited on-base tool of the Athletics to this point in the season, the stars could be aligning here for Stroman to put together a complete game.