The Toronto Blue Jays are looking to turn things around in Chicago.

The Jays started the season strong, sweeping the Athletics in three games in front of a packed Rogers Centre crowd, but struggled against the Colorado Rockies in the following series. They took just one game from their NL West opponents, and while some of the blame can be pointed towards the Jays being dealt a curveball with Cody Ponce being injured, a few different issues are bubbling under the surface.

Toronto continues to deal with injuries to its starting rotation, which is why the club signed Patrick Corbin to a one-year deal as extra (extra) insurance, and the club’s bullpen has been taxed out of the gate as the bats have struggled to give the pitching staff any consistent run support to begin the year. A few of the core bats are struggling to begin the season, and the Jays have needed to go into extra innings three times already, and we’re not even in mid-April yet.

Turning our attention to the Chicago White Sox series, the Blue Jays started their short road trip on the wrong foot.

Dylan Cease battled command issues right from the first inning, and the Jays’ bullpen had to come to the rescue with high-leverage guys as the bats were stymied by Grant Taylor and Sean Burke for seven innings. While they went down swinging at the end of the game, a costly error in extra innings from Tyler Heineman – who had just entered the game after Alejandro Kirk took a foul ball off the glove – and a timely hit from Winkler, Manitoba product Tristan Peters sent the home crowd home happy and gave the White Sox their second win of the season.

Things don’t get any easier today.

The club is turning things over to Mason Fluharty and the relief corps to kick off the second game of the series, and you can bet not many were expecting the Blue Jays to be turning to a bullpen game just two weeks into the season. This would normally be Eric Lauer’s spot in the rotation, but he’s been moved to Sunday as the clubhouse deals with some illness that has impacted the southpaw.

Fluharty will likely go an inning, maybe two, before the ball gets turned over to right-hander Lazaro Estrada, who will likely be asked to go multiple innings.

A starter by trade (made 20 starts last season), Estrada is built to go the distance, and in his first outing in Buffalo earlier this week, the Cuban product went 2 2/3 innings of relief across 35 pitches. Manager John Schneider is likely going to need Estrada to go 3+ innings and pitch the game of his life, and then the Jays will likely pivot to send him back to Buffalo for another arm for tomorrow. The longer Estrada can go today, the better it is for the Blue Jays and their goals for managing the bullpen.

The more runs the Blue Jays’ bats can put on the board, the better as well, so that some high-leverage arms can take a break. Letting Fluharty, Estrada, and Spencer Miles eat up most of the day would be a huge win for the Jays, and while it’s easier said than done, the bats giving the pitching staff some support will go a long way.

The club will be without Kirk for the foreseeable future, who was diagnosed with a fractured right thumb and will be hitting the IL. Heineman will likely hold down the fort behind the plate while the club has recalled Brandon Valenzuela from Triple-A Buffalo.

For the White Sox, manager Will Venable is going back to what worked for them in game one of the series.

Grant Taylor will once again start the contest, likely going an inning or two before making way for the next arm. Left-hander Anthony Kay was in line to start today, and he will likely follow Taylor early in the game.

The White Sox right-hander allowed zero hits and struck out one batter before turning things over to Burke, who allowed just four hits and one earned run across six innings. Using an opener two games in a row is an unusual method, but the White Sox are going back to the well to see if it can work again.

Location: Rate Field – Chicago, Illinois

First Pitch: 2:10 pm EST

Watch/Listen: Sportsnet / Sportsnet 590 the Fan

Toronto Blue Jays – Mason Fluharty: 0-0 record, 10.80 ERA, 1 2/3 IP, 4 SO, 0 BB

Chicago White Sox – Grant Taylor: 0-0 record, 3.00 ERA, 3 IP, 5 SO, 2 BB