Not an ideal start on Friday night against Baltimore, to say the least.

While it’s certainly still early in the year, the Jays have lost four out of their last five games and all of them have been to AL East opponents.

Now as a result Toronto has slid to the bottom of the standings in the division, but they still remain just half a game back of a Wild Card spot. The jockeying for positions isn’t massively important right now, but at the end of the day it’s not great to be dropping games like this against division foes at any point in the year.

Toronto has a chance to right the course ever-so-slightly this afternoon as Alek Manoah takes the mound opposite Grayson Rodriguez.

There’s been a few lineup adjustments as Brandon Belt gets bumped up to the number four spot, while Danny Jansen will slide in behind the plate to catch.

First pitch: 3:07 p.m. EST

Weather: 16C.

Toronto Blue Jays: 25-20, 7.5 GB, 0.5 WCGB. +13 DIFF, 4.58 R/G, 4.29 RA/G.

Baltimore Orioles: 27-16, 3.5 GB, +3.5 WCGB. +35 DIFF, 5.02 R/G, 4.24 RA/G.

Moneyline: TOR -139; BAL +118.

TOR: Alek Manoah RHP — 1-4, 5.40 ERA, 6.45 FIP, 1.800 WHIP, 7.0 K/9, -0.5 WAR.

BAL: Grayson Rodriguez RHP — 2-1, 6.57 ERA, 5.46 FIP, 1.730 WHIP, 10.7 K/9, -0.4 WAR.

TBA

Tune into the latest edition of Blue Jays Nation Radio as the crew talks about the Jays’ latest series against the New York Yankees.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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