This series will be the first time that Josh Donaldson will be making his return to Toronto since he was traded by the team last season. Donaldson has stated that he’s very excited to make his first return to “The Six”, but it’ll be very interesting to see how the fans will greet the former MVP.

Justin Smoak is currently the only active member still on the Blue Jays from Donaldson’s time with the team, which definitely puts this rebuild into perspective. The Blue Jays are also coming off a miserable six-game road trip where they only won a single game. So, they’ll certainly want to spoil Donaldson’s reunion trip during this mini two-game series.

The Blue Jays have decided to once again go with a bullpen day during this game. Wilmer Font will open the game in hopes that he can produce another quality outing. Except for Font’s latest outing against the Mariners, the 29-year-old has pitched extremely well for the Blue Jays. Font has allowed just three runs through his seven openings with the Blue Jays this season.

Following Font, the Blue Jays will hand the ball off to Zack Godley from out of the bullpen. Godley definitely earned another opportunity after his latest outing back in La La Land. The 29-year-old gave up a solo home run to begin his outing against the Dodgers. But, he then pitched three and 2/3 scoreless-innings and recorded a trio of strikeouts as well.

Calgary-native Michael John Graydon Soroka will be pitching in his home country for the first time in his career. To the delight of the Blue Jays, they’ll have to go against one of the best pitchers in the entire league. Soroka owns the lowest HR/9 in the entire league, and is also currently tied for 2nd for the lowest-ERA(2.41) in the league as well.

The 22-year-old was also extremely effective during his latest outing against the Marlins. Soroka went seven innings and gave up just two runs on five hits and struck out five batters as well. This start also marked the third time over his last five starts where he generated ten or more groundballs. However, the Blue Jays have recorded the 4th-lowest GB/FB ratio (0.73) in the AL since the All-Star break, which should help them counteract the high amounts of groundballs Soroka induces.

Unfortunately, the Blue Jays wasted Jacob Waguespack’s best performance of his entire career during his latest outing against the Dodgers. In what was Waguespack’s seventh official start of the season, the 25-year-old pitched seven innings of one-hit baseball and recorded five strikeouts as well.

The Dodgers seemingly had no answer for Waguespack in this game. Specifically, left-handed batters haven’t been able to hit anything off Waguespack this season. LHB are currently hitting just .157 AVG off of Waguespack so far this season. Waguespack’s effectiveness against LHB could prove to be very important during this game. Since one of the best hitters in the Braves’ lineup bats left in Freddie Freeman.

For the most part, Mike Foltynewicz has either been hurt or pitching extremely poorly this season. The 27-year-old currently owns a 5.68 ERA, 1.397 WHIP and 2.2 HR/9 through his 15 starts this season. Just a season ago, Foltynewicz was performing as the best pitcher in the Braves’ starting rotation.

Injuries have largely been the cause for these poor numbers from Foltynewicz this season. But, he’s coming off his best start of the season. Where he held the Mets to just one run on two hits through his seven innings of work. While Foltynewicz did surrender a home run for the second-straight start, he didn’t allow five hits or more for the first time since June 16.