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Now six games behind the Twins with 34 to play, the Guardians take a short hop across the lake to engage the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays are in 3rd place in the East with a 70-58 record. They are 1.5 games out of the third wild card spot, so every game is huge for them. They are 20-17 since the break.
These teams went 2-2 earlier this month in Cleveland with the cumulative score being 7-6 in favor of Toronto. The pitching dominated and this series looks to be no different. The Guardians hit .161 and managed to scrape together six runs in four games. Four of those runs were off Alex Manoah, who is not scheduled to start this series. Against pitchers other than Manoah the Guardians hit .147.
They will face lefties Hyun Jin Ryu and Yusei Kikuchi, who combined to allow one run in 11 innings in the Cleveland series. Tonight’s starter is Chris Bassitt, 12-6, 3.92 ERA, who leads the Jays in wins. At least he throws right-handed. We have not faced Bassitt this year. Right-handed hitters are batting just .201/.556 off him, but lefties have done well at .272/.888. Obviously Tito will stack the batting order with lefties tonight, seven of them, to be exact.
The key against Bassitt is to be on base; opponents have an OPS of .653 with nobody on and .826 with runners on. You also need to get to him early in the count; with two strikes batters are hitting .170.
Tanner Bibee goes for the Guardians tonight. Bibee has allowed just 14 earned runs in his last 10 starts. On Aug. 8 he shut out the Jays on six hits in seven innings. Let’s see if they can have more success the second time they see him. He was shaky in his last start against Detroit where he allowed 3 runs in 5 innings.
Logan Allen will face Ryu on Saturday and Noah Syndergaard goes against Kikuchi on Sunday. Bibee, Syndergaard, and Allen held the Jays to two runs in 17.2 innings earlier this month. I doubt they will combine to hold them to two runs this weekend.
As a team the Jays rank 16th in scoring at 4.45 runs per game, but the Guardians’ staff held them under two runs per game in the first series. Bo Bichette is hitting .318/.842 and Vlad Guerrero is at .268/.777. In the first series George Springer was 7-for-16, Vlad was 6-for-16 (but no RBI’s), and pesky Whit Merrifield was 6-for-13. Those three combined for 19 of the Jays’ 32 hits over four games.
The Jays have the lowest ERA of any team in baseball at 3.68. Their home ERA is 3.42, which is 3rd best. Runs are really going to be hard to come by for the Guardians, but Bassitt has not fared well against lefties and we’ll be seeing Ryu and Kikuchi’s soft stuff for the second time in less than three weeks, so maybe we’ll have a better idea of how to deal with it.
The Guardians are hitting .225/.616 as a team in August and barely averaging three runs per game. They’re facing the staff with the third best home ERA in baseball, a staff that held them to six runs in four games in Cleveland. The Guardians don’t have a single player with an OPS over .800 in August. Jose is hitting .191, Kwan .228, and Josh Naylor is still out. They might be lucky to score five runs in this series, especially facing two very good lefties and a 12-game winner with a 2.83 ERA at home.
The next 12 games include three against Toronto, six against the Twins, and three against Tampa. That's a very tough stretch and we still don't have Josh Naylor, Bieber, or McKenzie. The flame is still sputtering, but it could soon be out.
These teams went 2-2 earlier this month in Cleveland with the cumulative score being 7-6 in favor of Toronto. The pitching dominated and this series looks to be no different. The Guardians hit .161 and managed to scrape together six runs in four games. Four of those runs were off Alex Manoah, who is not scheduled to start this series. Against pitchers other than Manoah the Guardians hit .147.
They will face lefties Hyun Jin Ryu and Yusei Kikuchi, who combined to allow one run in 11 innings in the Cleveland series. Tonight’s starter is Chris Bassitt, 12-6, 3.92 ERA, who leads the Jays in wins. At least he throws right-handed. We have not faced Bassitt this year. Right-handed hitters are batting just .201/.556 off him, but lefties have done well at .272/.888. Obviously Tito will stack the batting order with lefties tonight, seven of them, to be exact.
The key against Bassitt is to be on base; opponents have an OPS of .653 with nobody on and .826 with runners on. You also need to get to him early in the count; with two strikes batters are hitting .170.
Tanner Bibee goes for the Guardians tonight. Bibee has allowed just 14 earned runs in his last 10 starts. On Aug. 8 he shut out the Jays on six hits in seven innings. Let’s see if they can have more success the second time they see him. He was shaky in his last start against Detroit where he allowed 3 runs in 5 innings.
Logan Allen will face Ryu on Saturday and Noah Syndergaard goes against Kikuchi on Sunday. Bibee, Syndergaard, and Allen held the Jays to two runs in 17.2 innings earlier this month. I doubt they will combine to hold them to two runs this weekend.
As a team the Jays rank 16th in scoring at 4.45 runs per game, but the Guardians’ staff held them under two runs per game in the first series. Bo Bichette is hitting .318/.842 and Vlad Guerrero is at .268/.777. In the first series George Springer was 7-for-16, Vlad was 6-for-16 (but no RBI’s), and pesky Whit Merrifield was 6-for-13. Those three combined for 19 of the Jays’ 32 hits over four games.
The Jays have the lowest ERA of any team in baseball at 3.68. Their home ERA is 3.42, which is 3rd best. Runs are really going to be hard to come by for the Guardians, but Bassitt has not fared well against lefties and we’ll be seeing Ryu and Kikuchi’s soft stuff for the second time in less than three weeks, so maybe we’ll have a better idea of how to deal with it.
The Guardians are hitting .225/.616 as a team in August and barely averaging three runs per game. They’re facing the staff with the third best home ERA in baseball, a staff that held them to six runs in four games in Cleveland. The Guardians don’t have a single player with an OPS over .800 in August. Jose is hitting .191, Kwan .228, and Josh Naylor is still out. They might be lucky to score five runs in this series, especially facing two very good lefties and a 12-game winner with a 2.83 ERA at home.
The next 12 games include three against Toronto, six against the Twins, and three against Tampa. That's a very tough stretch and we still don't have Josh Naylor, Bieber, or McKenzie. The flame is still sputtering, but it could soon be out.
