Blue Jays Series Preview: Can Jays continue run of success against AL East?

The Blue Jays enter play at 26-26 (.500), five games behind the Boston Red Sox

The Jays couldn’t complete the three game sweep of the Red Sox on Sunday, but you can’t complain with a second consecutive series win against an AL East opponent. Not only was it an important series victory, but they won the second game in memorable fashion. Those are the type of games that bring teams together, and let’s hope they can use it moving forward.

The return of Devon Travis to the lineup and the return of Russell Martin’s competency have given the Jays batting order more depth and punch one through nine. The loss of Troy Tulowitzki doesn’t help that, but a 15-day DL stint is inevitable for Tulo, and it’s good that it happened when Travis was healthy.

Their team wRC+ is steadily improving and getting closer to the mark they posted last year. It’s currently at 98, and while it still has far to go, they have a 111 number over the last week, so it’s on its way up.

On the pitching side of things, this last week wasn’t as good for the Jays. Over 53 IP, they put together a 4.08 ERA and 4.45 FIP, but their 4.9 rotational fWAR on the season is still 8th in the whole league, so their isn’t much to gripe about with regards to their staff.

This is another huge series, and if they can continue to win series against divisional opponents they will continue to make up ground on the Sox. They managed to win two of three against the Yankees last week in New York, and now in Toronto they look to continue their 2016 success against the veteran Yankee squad.

Before breaking down the individual pitching matchups, let’s first take a look across the diamond…

Next: Yankees bats continue to struggle