Red-Hot Meets White North — Blue Jays at Phillies, May 7-8

The Toronto Blue Jays stop by Philadelphia for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it two-game set with the Phillies, winners of nine of their last ten and the hottest team in baseball (pipe down Minnesota).

Nobody will begrudge you for getting a sense of deja vu, considering the good people of Care.com bust out the brooms less than these Philadelphia Phillies so far this year. Your hometown Phightin Phils are coming off yet another sweep, their fourth in the last six series. In fact, their only two series losses happen to be the first two of the season, losing two of three to Atlanta and then Cincinnati (both at home).

In the past thirty-two days, the Phillies have swept the Rockies, White Sox, Padres, and Giants. They have also taken two of three from Washington, St. Louis, and the Los Angeles Angels. The only “hiccups” they have had were splitting four games with Pittsburgh at home and Cincinnati on the road.

It is not all brooms and fireworks, however, as Trea Turner suffered a hamstring strain in the Giants series that could possibly keep him out six weeks or more. One way to alleviate the loss would be for Nick Castellanos to start rounding into some form of an offensive threat. He had at least one hit in each of the last three games against San Francisco, including his first double of the year, and two walks, just number nine and ten in 122 at-bats.

The Blue Jays travel to Philadelphia sitting in last place of the AL East, seven and a half games back of first-place Baltimore. They have lost their last four series, two to then-surging Kansas City and one each to the Dodgers and Nationals.

The Blue Jays have scuffled a bit offensively as they currently sit towards the lower-middle or bottom of baseball in HR, RBI, and runs. This comes as a slight surprise with the Blue Jays having the 27th least strikeouts in MLB and 8th most walks taken. The sputters on offense may be a product of five guys, getting semi-regular at-bats, all hitting .205 or below (Bichette, Biggio, Springer, Kirk, and Kiermaier). Early in the season, they have been led offensively by Daulton Varsho, Justin Turner, and, at times, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The re-acclimation of C Danny Jansen should help the lineup as he has hit .297 with 3 HR, 4 RBI, and 7 runs in 13 games (37 AB), one less homer than Guerrero in almost 100 fewer at-bats (134).

The pitching staff of the Blue Jays may face their own set of issues in the series. Currently, their pitching staff is tied with the White Sox and Rays for most homers allowed on the season. The top two offenders for the Jays happen to be the two starters the Phillies will see, both having much different years however.