Toronto Blue Jays vs. Tampa Bay Rays: Series preview

The Toronto Blue Jays will kick off a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend at Sahlen Field in Buffalo. Here’s everything you need to know about the matchup.

The Toronto Blue Jays are coming off of their official “home opener” this week, a short two-game series against the Miami Marlins. The Jays split the two games, winning on Tuesday night and then coming back from an 8-0 deficit on Wednesday night only to lose 14-11 in extra innings.

It’s been a rough start for the Jays, and who could really blame them? They had a tough stretch of games by playing their first 13 on the road.

While technically some of those contests were considered home games, they weren’t able to play at Sahlen Field because it wasn’t up to MLB standards yet. Now that it’s good to go, that should provide some stability for the team moving forward.

Toronto is entering this weekend’s series with a 6-9 record and currently sit in fourth place in the American League East standings. Here is everything you need to know about their matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays:

The Rays come in at 12-8 and currently sit in second place in the AL East.

The Rays have been hot this week, taking two of three from the Yankees last weekend and then continuing to roll with a four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox. They’re currently riding a six game winning streak.

Tampa’s been doing it with their pitching, sitting fifth in the league in team ERA and third in strikeouts with 182 entering Friday night. The offence has been mediocre.

However, when you’ve got Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton at the top of your rotation and a solid bullpen there’s less of a concern. Speaking of Morton, he was originally scheduled to start the second game of the series on Saturday, but was placed on the IL earlier this week with right shoulder inflammation.

Snell and Glasnow started on Wednesday and Thursday, so Toronto will dodge the big three. Tampa hasn’t named their starters for the series yet.