News and Notes as the Blue Jays head to Baltimore to face the inexplicably good Orioles

We’re one-third of the way through the season and the Baltimore Orioles — yes, the Trash Birds — are in a playoff spot. Let that sink in.

The Orioles doing as well as they are is pretty much exactly why I had optimism for the Blue Jays during this 60-game sprint. Baltimore has a fairly similar roster to the one they trotted out last season when they won like 40 games, yet, here we are. They’ve somehow bullshitted their way to a 12-9 start, which is the sixth-best record in the American League.

The key for the O’s has been scoring runs. They’ve won seven of their last nine games and only once have they scored fewer than five runs in a game during that stretch. The pitching has been so-so, but Baltimore is scoring the fifth-most runs-per-game in baseball, behind only the Yankees, Rockies, A’s, and Dodgers. Just like we all expected!

Anyways, after a wildly frustrating double-loss double-header on Sunday, the Jays own a 7-11 record. Since more than half of the league will make the playoffs this year, they aren’t quite out of it yet, but they need to start winning games in order to keep this faint playoff discussion alive. Baltimore would be a good place to start.

Unfortunately, it’ll be an uphill battle for Toronto as they’ll be without Bo Bichette for an extended period of time. As we know, Bo was placed on the Injured List with a strained knee, but it was reported yesterday that he could be out of action until mid-September.

Without their most important offensive catalyst, the Jays are going to need contributions from elsewhere in the lineup.

Vlad Jr. has quietly put together a good stretch over the past couple of weeks. Since his ugly start to the season in which he managed just five hits in his first 30 plate appearances, Vlad has slashed a .300/.391/.550 line since the beginning of August. In that stretch, he has an encouraging five walks to five strikeouts. Hopefully, Vlad can build on this nice stretch and start absolutely kicking the shit out of the ball.

Alex Cobb has been Baltimore’s ace this season. The ground-ball-heavy pitcher has allowed just six earned runs over 19 2/3 innings across four starts thus far. But while his results have been good, Cobb’s peripherals are far from impressive. He’s striking out just 7.8 per nine while walking 3.7 per nine and he’s got a 46.6 hard-hit percentage.

Hyun Jin Ryu will start the opener for Toronto. After a couple of shaky starts, Ryu has nicely played the part of ace for the Blue Jays. Over his last two starts, Ryu has allowed just one earned run on three hits, though his five walks is a bit of a concern.

On Tuesday, it’ll be soft-tosser Wade LeBlanc (who features the slowest fastball in the majors) making the start against youngster Nate Pearson (who absolutely doesn’t feature the slowest fastball in the majors).

LeBlanc has been batted around a bit this year. Through four starts, he has a 7.13 ERA with some hilariously bad peripherals (5.1 strikeouts per nine). Pearson had a great first start to his career, but some command issues have resulted in struggles in his two outings since. We saw Pearson implode against Miami because he wouldn’t attack hitters with his fastball and couldn’t command the zone. Let’s see if he can be more successful with a more aggressive approach.

The series finale on Wednesday should feature Tanner Roark and Tommy Milone.

Roark had a mediocre outing last time, allowing three earned runs over just four innings. It’s been a strange mixed bag for Roark, as he’s walking a lot of hitters (nine walks in 12 innings) but he’s also generating a lot of whiffs (27.2 whiff percentage).

Milone has had a strong start to his career in Baltimore. Through four starts, he has a 4.00 ERA, is striking out nine batters per nine and is walking just 1.5 per nine. As much as Cobb has been Baltimore’s ace based on results, Milone has probably been their best pitcher.