Winning Sunday’s game barely made a dent in their deficit in the AL East standings, but pulling off a huge comeback against the Yankees was big for the Blue Jays.

Rather than hitting the road on a four-game losing streak following a sweep, the Blue Jays will roll into Chicago for a three-game series with the White Sox with all the momentum in the world.

Last August, the Blue Jays pulled off a massive comeback against the Oakland A’s that was highlighted by a grand slam from Marcus Semien. The team went on to sweep the A’s in that series and then went into New York and swept the Yankees. It was the start of a stretch in which they won 10 of 11 games and pulled themselves into a playoff spot.

The hope is that Sunday’s comeback can spark a similar streak for the Blue Jays, who are playing three games in Chicago and then three in Milwaukee before a stretch of key AL East games with the Red Sox and Rays.

The White Sox came into Toronto at the beginning of June and got swept and things haven’t gotten much better for them since. They’ve gone 8-7 since their series with the Blue Jays and sit at 31-33 for the season, five games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central.

Chicago just activated Lance Lynn off of the Injured List and he made his season debut last week. They’ll also be welcoming Tim Anderson back from injury on Monday, who was placed on the IL right before the White Sox’s series in Toronto.

 

For anybody planning a trip down to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers and Blue Jays, Minor Leaguer put together a road trip guide over at Blue Bird Banter that’s worth checking out…

An interesting injury note about a Former Friend, as the Seattle Mariners are going to activate Ken Giles from the Injured List.

Giles hasn’t pitched since he was with the Blue Jays in 2020. He had Tommy John surgery that off-season and signed a two-year deal with the Mariners to rehab. In seven-and-one-third innings in the minors this season, Giles has allowed 11 earned runs on four hits and eight walks with eight strikeouts. Not very encouraging stuff!

Jose Berrios has been excellent for the Blue Jays in June and he’ll look to continue that trend against a team that knows him well. Over his last three starts, Berrios has allowed just six earned runs across 22 innings and he’s struck out 26 batters. He faced the White Sox four times last season, three times as a Minnesota Twin and once as a Blue Jay, and he had a 5.57 ERA and a .833 opponent OPS against them.

The White Sox will send out Lance Lynn, who’s making just his second start of the season after missing two months due to a knee injury. Lynn was excellent for the White Sox last season, as he finished third in AL Cy Young voting, and he put up seven one-run innings in both of his starts against the Blue Jays in 2021. The Detroit Tigers scored four runs on 10 hits off of Lynn in his return from injury last week.

Kevin Gausman will take the mound on Tuesday looking to rebound after his worst outing of the season. Gausman got drilled by the Baltimore Orioles last weekend, allowing five runs on seven hits before getting pulled in the third inning. He also had a bit of a rough time with the White Sox a couple of weeks ago, as they scored three runs on six hits over five innings off of Gausman.

Going for the White Sox will be Dylan Cease, a pitcher they didn’t see in the previous series. Cease has been Chicago’s best starter this season. He has a 2.91 ERA and hasn’t allowed a run in six of his last seven starts, with the one blip being a seven-run implosion against the Boston Red Sox.

The finale on Wednesday will be between Ross Stripling and Lucas Giolito. Stripling has done a great job filling into the rotation for the injured Hyun Jin Ryu and he’ll be making his first-ever start against the White Sox. Giolito will be looking to rebound after the Blue Jays tagged him for six runs in four-and-two-thirds innings earlier in June.

This is a mid-week day game, which always seemed to be cursed for the Blue Jays.