Blue Jays vs. Dodgers Preview: It’s the battle of the stars between Toronto and Los Angeles 

The Toronto Blue Jays (68-48) are coming off their best offensive explosion of the season as they swept the Colorado Rockies handily in three games. In fact, the Jays did so in record-breaking fashion, piling up a total of 45 runs and 63 hits in the series onslaught over the Rockies. 

But now, moving on from the worst team in the entire MLB to one of the best ones, Toronto will now face the NL West juggernauts Los Angeles Dodgers (66-49) in a three-game weekend set starting Friday. It's a heavily anticipated matchup with plenty of star power from both sides.

Blue Jays vs. Dodgers Preview: It’s the battle of the stars between Toronto and Los Angeles 

For the Blue Jays, both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette have been as hot as ever in recent weeks. Guerrero has been raking it during the past 15 games, compiling a stellar .369 average, 1.146 OPS, along with a whopping 17 runs scored, five home runs and 14 RBIs.

Not to be outdone, his teammate, who appears to be playing out of this world for his next contract, has actually been better. Bichette has amassed a .420 average and 1.119 OPS, together with 11 runs scored, four home runs, a whopping 21 RBIs, while striking out only four times in 69 total at-bats in his last 15 games. 

As for Los Angeles, Shohei Ohtani has been the front-and-center of the Dodgers’ ongoing success, as expected. Ohtani has posted a solid .283 average, .969 OPS with 13 runs scored, five home runs and 10 RBIs during his past 15 contests, including recording his 1000th hit in the MLB with a mammoth 440-ft home run.

Flanked by the likes of Freddie Freeman and former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernández, together they help form the three-headed monster in the Dodgers’ offensive attack. In the past 15 games, Freeman has batted a stellar .390 with a 1.017 OPS, along with eight runs scored, three home runs and 14 RBIs, while Hernández has held his own too with a .254 average, .827 OPS, together with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

In terms of the pitching matchups, it will be the battle of former Cy Young winners and future Hall of Famers to lead things off on Friday, with the Jays’ Max Scherzer (2-1, 4.39 ERA) dueling with the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw (5-2, 3.29). Toronto has yet to announce their starters for the subsequent two games, but Los Angeles will be sending their best with Blake Snell (1-1, 3.21 ERA) on Saturday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-7, 2.51 ERA) on Sunday.

One thing is for sure, things shouldn’t be as one-sided as what the Jays experienced during their past series against Colorado this time around. More importantly, Toronto will be able to gauge if they are indeed legitimate contenders and not pretenders based on their showing against Los Angeles. Let the battle begin!