Toronto Blue Jays vs. San Diego Padres
Monday July 25th – Wednesday July 27th
Written by Mike Passador and Gideon Turk
The Blue Jays, fresh off Sunday’s series salvaging win, will welcome the San Diego Padres into town for a three game set. This marks the middle of a nine game homestand that will cap off against AL East rival Baltimore.
The Padres come to town as major sellers, making the following three games an interesting opportunity to showcase their wares to Toronto. Despite a second half that’s included a sweep of San Francisco and a series win against Washington, they’re battling for the NL West basement with Arizona in what’s been another frustrating year in San Diego. GM A.J. Preller took a mighty swing at contending immediately when he was hired in 2014 but came up with nothing but air. After the initial push to compete, Preller and the Padres have swung back and traded some of their bigger name pieces for a number of prospects.
Toronto dropped two of three to Seattle, missing an opportunity to take care of business at home against an inferior opponent. They’ll look to make sure that doesn’t happen again against San Diego.
Pitching Matchups:
Monday, July 25th– 7:07 PM ET
Aaron Sanchez vs. Colin Rea
Aaron Sanchez has been chopping up opponent batters all season long and with every passing day it seems more and more likely that he’ll continue to do that from the Blue Jays rotation and not from the bullpen. All signs have pointed to him not being overly fatigued so far, a good sign as the Blue Jays will likely make their decision on what to do with him based on those levels. As this is an interleague matchup, this will be Sanchez’s first test against the Padres this season. He has been on a bit of a run lately, as in his last six starts, he’s allowed just eight runs in 40 innings pitched. His last start, against Arizona, marked only the second time this season where he didn’t walk a batter, as he got the win while striking out five on only six hits.
The 26-year-old Rea (pronounced ray), has been decidedly below average this season, just like the team he suits up for every five days. In 18 appearances, 17 of which have been starts, Rea has an ERA of 5.01, and has walked 9.6% of the batters he’s faced. He’s also had problems with the long ball, allowing 1.16 per nine innings in 2016. He features a wide variety of pitches, with four and two seam fastballs that average 93 mph a piece, a change at 85 mph, a curve at 79 mph, and a cutter at 88 mph.
Tuesday, July 26th – 7:07 PM ET
Marcus Stroman vs. Andrew Cashner
It’s now been three good starts in four tries for Stroman as he tries to bounce back from a miserable first half of the season. Against Arizona last week, Stroman was able to go eight strong innings, walking zero batters, allowing one run on eight hits. How he did it is more impressive, as he used his four seam fastball 19% of the time, the highest number of the season for him. Mixing it up and not becoming a one pitch pitcher is going to be the key for Stroman going forward, as it will allow him to have better games when his control is working, and not blow up even when he doesn’t have the best command.
As of now, Cashner is scheduled to make this start for San Diego, but with trade rumours flying around involving his name, he may not be on the Padres to pitch against Toronto in this series. Like Stroman, he’s now had three solid starts in his past four outings on his quest to redeem himself after a terrible first half. There’s some extra motivation in it for him as well, as the stronger he pitches, the better chance he has of getting traded to a contender in need of pitching. As things stand now, they may not want to pay a high price for a pitcher that has struggled as much as Cashner has this season. He throws a couple of fastballs that sit at 93 mph, a slider at 85 mph, a curve at 78 mph, and a change at 86 mph. The Blue Jays could do their front office a favour if they are able to pounce on Cashner, maybe driving that price down on him just a bit more to make a trade a bit more palpable.
Wednesday, July 27th – 12:37 PM ET
Marco Estrada vs. Luis Perdomo
After missing a couple of weeks with a sore back, Estrada came back with a bang on Friday night against Seattle, allowing just two runs in six innings pitched, taking the loss because the Blue Jays bats couldn’t get anything going. He has worked his rising fastball magic for almost a season and a half now, and there have been no indications that it won’t stop inducing weak contact from hitters every time he takes that mound. Against a weak Padres lineup, he should have no problem pitching a gem in this game.
Luis Perdomo is a pitcher, in the sense that he pitches balls to home plate. However, nobody would describe him as a very good one, because, well, he has been pretty awful at his job this season. In 76 2/3 innings mixed between the bullpen and rotation, Perdomo has an ERA of 6.93. And it’s not like he is supposed to be pitching well. His DRA is 4.61. Not a lot to like on this one, if you’re a Padres fan. He features a four pitch mix, with four and two seam fastballs sitting in the mid 90’s, a change in the high 80’s, and a slider at 84 mph. Baseball is a weird sport, so expect him to shut the Blue Jays down in this game.
Additions and Subtractions
The Padres have had a relatively uneventful July, though that could change in a hurry with the trade deadline swiftly approaching. Last week saw the return of former Blue Jay farmhand Brett Wallace who was activated from the paternity list. Utility player Alexi Amarista was sent down to AAA’s El Paso Chihuahuas in a corresponding move. The team could soon see the returns of right hander Tyson Ross and outfielder Jon Jay from the disabled list, though the Blue Jays won’t have to concern themselves with either.
The bulk of Toronto’s recent transactions deal with the bullpen, as the Blue Jays optioned Aaron Loup to AAA Buffalo to make room for Franklin Morales on Friday and somewhat surprisingly DFA’d Drew Storen yesterday morning. While Ryan Tepera was called up in Storen’s place, it’s possible that he or fellow reliever Bo Schultz may not be long for the roster with Jose Bautista ready to return. The Jays might also decide to waive Junior Lake to make room for Bautista, but the return of Joey Bats will be a most welcome sight either way. The team is also hopeful that Russell Martin is ready to come back from his shower-induced injury and relieve Josh Thole of starting duties.
Elsewhere in the organization, Ryan Goins is on a rehab assignment in AAA Buffalo. Chris Colabello, recently activated from the restricted list following the end of his 80 game PED suspension, is also playing for the Bison at the moment.
Keep an Eye On
Eyes on the Deadline
This series gives Toronto’s brain trust a good luck at two of their alleged prime trade targets. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports has reported that the Blue Jays and Orioles are frontrunners in the Melvin Upton sweepstakes. The former Bossman Junior has had a resurgent year, slashing .256 / .304 / .439 with 16 home runs, 45 RBI and 20 steals. His acquisition would crowd the outfield spots and push Jose Bautista and Michael Saunders into more DH at bats going forward as well as give the Blue Jays some cost certainty headed into next season. Toronto has also been rumored to be after the aforementioned Andrew Cashner to add to the team’s current wealth of pitching.
Whether or not the Padres trade either to the Blue Jays, there will almost certainly be moves from GM AJ Preller. Recent speculation also has the team trying to trade catcher Derek Norris in addition to Upton, Cashner and presumably a handful of other names that haven’t leaked yet. With the trade deadline just days away it’s entirely possible that there will be a new iteration of the San Diego Padres heading to Pearson airport on Wednesday night.
Padre Pitching
The Padres place in the bottom third of the MLB in terms of both starter ERA (4.63, 20th) and bullpen ERA (4.48, 25th), good enough for a collective 4.56 ERA that puts them 25th overall. That’s with half of the games coming in the spacious* Petco Park. While the Blue Jays were baffled by two Seattle pitchers with uninspiring statistics they should be able to tee off every now and then against various Padre hurlers. After their three games against the Mariners produced just eight runs, the potential is there for the offense to get back on track after what was hopefully a brief slump.
*Giancarlo Stanton notwithstanding
Feels Like the First Time
There have been 211,233 games in the 141 year history of Major League Baseball. For the first time ever, the San Diego Padres will play in Toronto. The last time the teams faced off at all was back in June of 2013 when San Diego took two of three in Southern California. While the Padres don’t bring a ton of star power into the series, playing an infrequent opponent can make for a nice change of pace for players and fans alike.
The Blue Jays will look to continue their dominance against the Padres and improve their 5-4 all time record.
Probable Lineup
Padres |
Blue Jays |
| 1 Travis Jankowski – CF | 1 Jose Bautista – RF |
| 2 Wil Myers – 1B | 2 Josh Donaldson – 3B |
| 3 Matt Kemp – RF | 3 Edwin Encarnacion – DH |
| 4 Yangervis Solarte – 2B | 4 Michael Saunders – LF |
| 5 Melvin Upton – LF | 5 Russell Martin – C |
| 6 Ryan Schimpf – 3B | 6 Troy Tulowitzki – SS |
| 7 Brett Wallace – DH | 7 Justin Smoak – 1B |
| 8 Derek Norris – C | 8 Kevin Pillar – CF |
| 9 Alexei Raimrez – SS | 9 Devon Travis – 2B |
via Roster Resource
Final Thoughts
The Padres make their first trip north of the border and look like an opponent the Blue Jays should handle. At 42-56 and preparing to sell off players for future assets, the Padres appear to be a far weaker team. With their two best pitchers and a possibly resurgent Marcus Stroman taking the mound, they’re set up well to take at least two of three and possibly make up some ground in the division race in advance of their mid-week date with the Orioles.
Lead Photo: Kevin Sousa-USA TODAY Sports