Tonight, the Jays have a chance to put together back to back wins in Cesar Valdez’s homecoming to Oakland, following a full 9.1 innings there to start the year. If they can pull it off, it will be back to back wins for the first time since July 6th, and only the second time since June 19th. Toronto managed to take the first game of the series against the Athletics last night in a tight 4-2 victory but will have to have a much better outing from the bats if they want to do so again tonight. After going 13/70 with runners in scoring position on the road trip, despite the win last night it was more of the same, going just 2 for 12. Just juice up the bases for Ryan Goins or whatever. Fuck, I don’t know. Just win.

It just wouldn’t be another day in 2017 Jays land without some kind of injury to talk about. Today’s special is Danny Barnes, hitting the 10 day DL, with lefty specialist Matt Dermody jumping up in his place.

Joe Smith’s name also continued to pop up in trade rumors today, this time being linked to the Brewers.

And now, the lineups…

Tonight the Jays will have to look down the barrel of Sonny Gray. One can only hope that the weight of the trade talks swirling around his head cause him to struggle, and Cesar Valdez locks into Ace mode like he did during his outing in Boston (4IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 0 BB 5 K).