The Blue Jays swept the A's in the first series of the season. This week the A's will look to derail Toronto's Wild Card hopes.
The Athletics season began with a three-game sweep at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, including a pair of one-run losses. Toronto started the season on fire and the A's caught them at the wrong time. In the months that have followed, both teams have struggled with injuries, with neither looking like a postseason club.
The Blue Jays have found their stride again of late, going 7-3 and climbing their way back to the .500 mark for the first time since June 22 when they were 39-39. This year, that has been good enough to get them to the cusp of the American League Wild Card race, entering the week trailing the Cleveland Guardians by one game.
This week, the Jays will be throwing out Cy Young contender Dylan Cease (10-5, 2.25 ERA) on Monday, followed by trade deadline acquisition José Soriano (11-7, 3.52 ERA) on Tuesday. Soriano has faced the A's numerous times as a member of the Angels and is 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA against them in two starts this season.
The Blue Jays offense has struggled mightily this season, with a big culprit being Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s power outage. He has eight home runs this season, and none of them have come at home.
After trading Daulton Varsho to the Houston Astros at the deadline, the Jays have been rolling with Brett Bateman in center. In 25 games, he's batting .347 with a .412 OBP and an .818 OPS atop the lineup. He's been a spark plug table-setter who's been helping to propel the offense recently.
If the A's want to have a chance to win this series, they'll need a lead before the bottom of the ninth, because the Jays have Louis Varland as closer now, and his 1.15 ERA with a 0.98 WHIP suggests he may be even tougher than Mason Miller this season.
The A's will be starting left-hander Jacob Lopez on Monday and Jack Perkins on Tuesday. Lopez versus Cease should prove to be an underrated pitcher's duel, with the A's lefty holding a 2.36 ERA across 49 ⅔ innings since the All-Star break. He's allowed two or fewer runs in each of his nine starts.
Neither team has announced a Wednesday starter.
The A's offense, despite missing key pieces like Nick Kurtz, Tyler Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson, Shea Langeliers, and Brent Rooker, ranks 12th in MLB in runs scored since the All-Star break with 209. Toronto has ranked 25th, scoring 187 in that span. In the month of September, the A's 34 runs scored rank 2nd, while Toronto's 31 rank 5th.
The A's just took three of four games on the road against the Seattle Mariners, seemingly ending their own bid for the postseason.
The green and gold are looking to end as many postseason bids as possible down the stretch. While they won't be able to completely take Toronto out of things given their proximity to the postseason, they can surely make things more difficult for the Jays and return the favor after that season-opening sweep.
