Blue Jays AL East Recap: Jays Fall Behind

Each week, Jays Journal will take a look at the bigger picture of the American League East to help frame not only where the Blue Jays are in the standings, but why they are there.

New York Yankees: 40-33
Boston Red Sox 41-34
Tampa Bay Rays: 40-38
Baltimore Orioles: 37-38
Toronto Blue Jays: 36-39

The Blue Jays look worse for the wear entering the upcoming homestand. They managed a sloppy split series with the Texas Rangers and salvaged just a win against the Royals during the weekend. This puts the Blue Jays 3 games behind 500, 5 games out of first, and 3.5 games out of the Wild Card race.

The sloppy series against out of division foes will be followed up by a bout with the Orioles and Red Sox. With some of the best, the AL East has to offer we may have witnessed the Blue Jays last hurrah for the season. The sloppy week saw every aspect of the team falter. The rotation looked terrible. The bullpen was without setup man Joe Smith and call up Leonel Campos. The offense was also incredibly inconsistent, at times bailing out the team, and at others being silent.

Things were not all bad for the Blue Jays. Both Marco Estrada and Francisco Liriano bounced back from rough starts. John Gibbons‘ new look offense has seemed largely more successful than the lineup was before hand.

Jose Bautista had an excellent week at the plate after a quiet start to June. Bautista has now tied Joe Carter for 4th overall in franchise RBI’s with 736. Our own Clayton Richer detailed who else may possibly be overtaken on that list earlier.

The Blue Jays could see Aaron Sanchez return to action within the coming weeks. Which should be a boost given the struggles the rotation faced this week.

Final Takeaway:

The Blue Jays needed to play much better than they played last week to make a splash. With the competition dialing up to another level against the AL East foes, the Blue Jays may have missed their last chance at an even record.