Series Preview: The Trash Birds are in town

The Blue Jays and Orioles are both expected to be towards the bottom of the AL East when everything is said and done this season. Both teams are currently undergoing rebuilds with their major-league rosters. However, they have both been able to muster up some success to start this season.

These Orioles were the face of many memes when they lost their opener to the Yankees. Anywhere from being on pace for 0-162, to being the punching bag of the AL East division. So it came as a big surprise when they won two out of three games against those same Yankees. Now coming into Toronto, the Orioles will look to find similar success against the Blue Jays.

Sean Reid-Foley will get the start in place of the injured Clayton Richard. The 23-year-old was originally assigned to minor-league camp, but he will now make a spot start in favor of Richard. The Blue Jays have been pleasantly surprised with their starting pitching to start this season. Their starting rotation currently holds a combined 24-inning scoreless streak. So Reid-Foley will look to continue that streak with his first start of the 2019 season.

For the Orioles, they will start 25-year-old David Hess. The Tennessee-native has already made his 2019-debut, but as a relief pitcher. Hess pitched in two innings on opening day against the Yankees. In those two innings, he gave up one hit and two walks, while also recording two strikeouts. He is expected to pitch for more than just a few innings this time, but the Orioles also have a surplus of pitchers in their bullpen who can throw for multiple innings if needed.

The StroShow will be taking the ball in game two against the Orioles. Following his spectacular performance on opening day, Stroman will look to be even more effective in his second start of the season. Last time out he pitched seven scoreless-innings and only surrendered two hits and four walks. While he did also record seven strikeouts, three of those four walks came during the first four innings of the game. So be sure to be on the lookout for improved control early on with Stroman, as a sign of improvement off his last start.

Andrew Cashner will be the opposing pitcher against the Blue Jays. This will be also be Cashner’s second start of the young 2019 season. Although, he had a very different opening start than Stroman. The 32-year-old made his first start of the season on opening day against the Yankees. But he only lasted four-plus innings after giving up six runs, six hits, four walks along with three strikeouts. So what could go wrong in the small-confines of the Rogers Centre?

The Shoemaker will get the start in the finale of this series. He will look to build off of the impressive start that he made in game two against the Tigers. Where he pitched seven scoreless-innings and recorded seven punch-outs, while only giving up a pair of hits and walks. This start will provide him with a excellent opportunity to extend that scoreless-streak against the rebuilding offense of the Orioles.

While the Orioles haven’t announced a starter for the series finale, it appears that they will go with an opener followed with revilers out of the pen. Which worked well for them on Saturday, as they only gave up three runs against the Bronx Bombers.