I hope you know who you want to take you home because it’s closing time on the 2019 season for the Blue Jays. The lights are turning on over every person who’s followed the team this summer. The Blue Jays’ season was taken over by the Raptors winning the NBA championship this summer, and by also having “Kawhi Watch” take over the Rogers Centre when “The Claw” watched a game in late-June as well.

While there hasn’t been a whole lot for Blue Jays’ fans to cheer about this season, it’s hard to deny that these young kids don’t make you as excited for the 2020 season as LeBron James gets during “Taco Tuesdays”. Even with just three games remaining, the Blue Jays actually have something to play for this weekend. The Rays are currently battling for Wild Card positions with the Money Balless Athletics and the Charlie Sheen-led Indians. For former Rays minor-league coach and current Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo, he would love to stick it to the Rays one last time this season.

Through his four starts this month, Timothy James Zeuch has certainly caught the eyes of many within the Blue Jays’ front office. The 24-year-old hasn’t given up more than three runs in each of his four starts with the Blue Jays. Zeuch has also created a combined 16 strikeouts through his 17.2 innings pitched. Coming into this start against the Rays, Zeuch should be able to generate at least one strikeout per inning against the Rays.

Since the start of September, the Rays’ hitters have recorded the 5th-most number of strikeouts in the AL. Zeuch will need to be more efficient with his pitches during his final start of the 2019 season. So far in the majors, Zeuch has thrown just 58% of his pitches for strikes. So, he’ll need to do a better job at attacking the strike zone against the Rays, in order for the Blue Jays to feel even more confident about him heading into next season.

Tyler Glasnow took the league by storm earlier this season. Following the trade made by the idiotic and stupid Pirates’ GM Neal Huntington that sent Glasnow and Auston Meadows to the trop for the aging Chris Archer, the Rays’ pitching staff looked unhittable before the injury to Glasnow. The 26-year-old missed four months of the season but has been dominating opposing batters once again this month.

In his three starts since being activated from the IL, Glasnow has surrendered just two runs on five hits and has recorded an insane 17 strikeouts through his eight innings pitched. To make that number feel even more ridiculous, Glasnow has faced 29 batters in his three starts this month, which means he’s struck out over half of those hitters through just eight innings of work.

The 2019 season has been anything but ordinary for rookie Trent Thornton. From doubling as a catcher in the dugout, to breaking records on Statcast with his curveball, to coming out of the bullpen in his last three outings this will surely be a season to remember for Thornton. Although, the soon-to-be 26-year-old would definitely love to earn his sixth victory of the season on the day before his birthday.

In order for Thornton to party in da club on his birthday, he’ll need to correct the mistakes he made during his latest outing against the Yankees. Thornton gave up four runs on five hits along with a home run through his five innings of work. The Rays’ lineup has produced the 5th-highest SLG percentage in the AL this month, which means Thornton will need to attack the inside half of the zone in this game to counteract the Rays extra-base power.

Since returning from the IL, the Rays have yet to take the training wheels off of Blake Snell and rightly so. The 26-year-old would likely be rehabbing in the minors if their season hadn’t ended already. Over his first two starts back from injury, Snell has pitched a combined 3.2 innings and surrendered a single run on two hits along with seven strikeouts as well.

As the Rays are currently fighting off the Indians for the second Wild Card spot, they’ll need Snell to go as far as he can in this game. During his latest start, the Rays held Snell to a pitch limit of 50 pitches. This time around, they’ll likely want to keep him around 50 to 60 pitches once again. But, the Rays may look to extend Snell’s limit up to 80 pitches if he’s dominating the Blue Jays’ lineup like he’s already done on multiple occasions this season.

Following his last three starts, Clay Buchholz is absolutely forcing the Blue Jays to tell him this offseason that he doesn’t have to go home but that he can’t stay here in Toronto after this season. The 35-year-old has allowed a total of 17 runs on 23 hits over just 11.2 innings pitched. The Blue Jays’ front office will likely decide to let the veteran pitcher out into the world to find a new mound to pitch off next season.

While this will very likely be his final start in a Blue Jays’ uniform, Buchholz still has the opportunity to showcase himself for the other 29 teams in the league during this game. If Buchholz still wants to continue to pitch after this season, it wouldn’t be shocking to see a handful of teams bidding for his services.

The Rays have yet to announce who they’ll start during this final game of the regular season. With the Rays already using Charlie Morton on Wednesday, it’s very unlikely that they would decide to send him back out to the mound for this game. So, that leaves the Rays with either Yonny Chirinos or Ryan Yarbrough to start game 162 for them.

Both pitchers would be making this start on regular rest and the Rays could ultimately choose to utilize both Chirinos and Yarbrough during this game. Since Chirinos and Yarbrough both own a 7 SO/9 this season, the Blue Jays’ hitters may find it tough to generate much offense in this game, as their lineup has currently recorded the most number of strikeouts in the AL this month.