The Blue Jays are changing up the order of their starting pitchers as they hope to leapfrog the Guardians in the wild card race.
The Toronto Blue Jays are currently in the middle of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners and will have an opportunity to clinch the series win against their former American League Championship Series opponents in the second game of the series Saturday.
The Blue Jays have had an overall disappointing season to this point considering their World Series aspirations following their first American League pennant win since 1993 last season.
Despite that, Toronto is still in the thick of the playoff hunt and entered Saturday just 2.5 games out of the final AL wild card.
Following the conclusion of the Blue Jays series against the Mariners on Sunday, the former will head on the road to take on the team currently occupying the third and final wild card spot, the Cleveland Guardians, in a three-game series at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
Ahead of the critical, potential season-turning series against Cleveland, Toronto re-slotted its starting rotation and will have two of its better starters on the mound.
In game one of the three-game series on Tuesday, Spencer Arrighetti will start for the Blue Jays and will take on Gavin Williams, who'll get the start for the Guardians.
Arrighetti is still looking to find his footing two starts into his Toronto tenure. The former Houston Astros starter struck out four batters, walked two and allowed four runs (three earned) on five hits (one homer) in four innings pitched in his latest outing against the Kansas City Royals on Aug. 27.
Arrighetti has a 7.36 ERA in 7.1 innings of work across his two Blue Jays starts.
Toronto ace Dylan Cease will get the nod in the second game of the series Wednesday. Joey Cantillo will start for Cleveland.
The potential American League Cy Young candidate got the nod in the Blue Jays' 8-1 win against Seattle on Friday. He fanned eight batters, walked one and allowed one earned run on four hits (one homer) in six innings pitched.
In the series finale Thursday, Jose Soriano will get the start for Toronto against a to-be-announced Guardians pitcher.
Soriano was acquired by the Blue Jays in a trade with the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 3. Soriano will be looking to bounce back after a rough outing against the New York Yankees on Aug. 23.
The former Angel struck out seven, walked three, hit a batter and allowed five earned runs on seven hits in five innings pitched in that outing.
