The Blue Jays avoided a sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday afternoon.
After dropping the first two games of a three-game set against the Detroit Tigers, the Toronto Blue Jays avoided a sweep on Wednesday afternoon, winning 5-1 at Rogers Centre.
The win moved the Blue Jays to 76-77 on the season. Unfortunately, the Cleveland Guardians also won on Wednesday, and that win actually put them in first place in the American League Central.
As a result, the Blue Jays are currently chasing down the Chicago White Sox, who they trail by 1.5 games. So, the win only gave the Blue Jays a 0.5-game of ground gained. Furthermore, the Blue Jays do not have the tiebreaker over Chicago, so they are effectively 2.5 games behind them with nine games to play.
And don't forget that the Texas Rangers are in the mix as well. They are just 1.5 games behind Chicago. The Rangers will play the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night and will look to cut that to one game.
How Wednesday's win happened
--First off, beleaguered veteran Max Scherzer pitched excellently, giving up just one earned run on three hits over five innings. He walked three and struck out three. With the win, he's now 3-8 with a 6.07 ERA.
--Four Blue Jays relievers combined to shut the door over the final four innings. Mason Fluharty and Louis Varland were perfect while Spencer Miles gave up four hits and a walk, but no runs.
--Offensively, Brett Bateman stayed hot, going 2-for-4, but the Blue Jays had only one extra-base hit: A double by Josh Smith, who went 1-for-4. Myles Straw and Bateman were the only members of the offense to register a multi-hit game.
--As for Detroit, Kevin McGonigle had two hits. Keider Montero took the loss after giving up two earned runs over four innings.
What's next for the Blue Jays
The Blue Jays will be off on Thursday before opening up a massive three-game series against the Rangers in Arlington. Toronto has re-slotted the rotation for those three games, which you can view here.
The Rangers will be playing the Red Sox again on Thursday, so the hope is that they'll need to use high-leverage bullpen arms which may be tired by the time the Jays get to town.
As for the White Sox, they'll host these same Tigers for a four-game series beginning on Thursday. First pitch of that series opener is 7:40 p.m. ET.
