News and Notes as the Blue Jays head to Boston

This weekend will be the Blue Jays’ first look at the rotting husk of the Boston Red Sox that the team is trotting out this season.

After winning the World Series in 2018, Dave Dombroski racked up a pretty big bill and owner John Henry wasn’t pleased with it, so he brought in a Moneyball type guy from the Rays organization, Chaim Bloom, whose best attribute is cutting costs.

And, here we are, with the Red Sox in rebuild mode, a nightmarish slog for their fans who have become spoiled with four World Series titles in a decade-and-a-half, but sweet, sweet music for the rest of the division.

The Red Sox have some of the worst starting pitching in baseball and are allowing 5.17 runs per game. The Blue Jays, on the other hand, currently have the worst offence in baseball, scoring just 3.10 runs per game. Something’s gotta give.

Please, for the love of fuck, let it be Toronto’s offence finally breaking out.

Here are the expected pitching match-ups this week…

Tanner Roark will make his second start as a Blue Jays after a huuuuuuuuge break. He last started all the way back on July 28 when the Jays were in Washington. He held his former team to just one run over five innings of work, so hopefully, we see that again.

Boston will trot out Ryan Weber, who’s having an impossibly bad season so far. Through two starts, Weber has pitched seven innings, allowing nine runs on 10 hits and seven walks. He hasn’t struck out a single batter. Not one. If the Blue Jays can’t put up a crooked number on this guy, I don’t even know what to say.

Does that name sound familiar? It might, unless you tuned out September of 2019, which is something I totally wouldn’t have blamed you for. Former Blue Jay Zack Godley will start for the Sox on Saturday, which sorta gives you a true indication of where their rotation is at. He’s allowed five earned runs through seven-and-a-third innings across two starts, though, at the very least, he has a few strikeouts.

Matt Shoemaker will go in opposition of Godley, looking to rebound after an ugly outing in Atlanta. Last time out, Shoemaker got drilled by the Braves for six runs over four-and-two-thirds. The difference for Shoemaker in Atlanta compared to his strong debut in Tampa was poor command. Hopefully, it was just the result of having so many days off in between games.

We don’t yet know who’s starting on Sunday, which would have been Trent Thornton’s spot in the rotation. It’ll either be Chase Anderson, who’s still on the Injured List but is expected to be activated soon, or it’ll be a reliever game in which we’ll likely see Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, and Jacob Waguespack combine to throw the majority of the game.