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Slithering Snakes versus the Blue Birds

well, quickly off of the euphoria of taking a home series against the dreaded Dodgers, we get dealt a meeting with the Birds of the North. Now, with Toronto being in the middle of their own chase for a pennant, we can expect them to look at our home record and perhaps feel a mite confident. After watching the travails and exploits of our beloved snakes at home, I would think they would be justified. While winning against the dreaded D men was nice, the question remains, is it sustainable?

does this mean we can golf on Monday?  Why yes! yes it does!
does this mean we can golf on Monday? Why yes! yes it does!
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The Jays are 10 games above .500

they are 7-3 over their last 10

Josh Donaldson has a war of 5.0 (yep, MVP worthy numbers to be sure)

they have a winning record on the road

they have a +75 run differential

they have three guys capable of closing (Grilli, Storen and Osuna)

and three starters with a war of 2.0 or above (Estrada, Happ and Sanchez)

6 guys with double digit homers (Donaldson, Encarnacion, Saunders, Tulo, Bautista, Smoak)

A center fielder who is on SC web gems about once a week (Pillar)

plus they have Troy freaking Tulowitzki (who we all respect both as a person and a player)

So, perhaps that should temper our expectations a bit.  We get to play them twice and we catch them after an off day for a quickie west coast trip, so they'll be rested and on their way back home.

THE VIEW FROM THE CROWS NEST

It's cloudy and apparently there are storms on the horizon... we've already lost our cabin boy Ziggy due to the heavy seas and as far as the rest of the cargo is concerned, our supercargo Mr. Hale informs me that some of the rigging is fraying.

PITCHING MATCHUPS

Tuesday - Aaron Sanchez(9-1/2.97/1.19) vs Zack Godley(2-0/5.28/1.50)

Sanchez has pretty good control (no more than 3 walks in a game over his last 10 appearances) and does an extraordinary job of keeping his team in games.  Zack is looking to show that last year wasn't a fluke and has done enough to manage a couple of wins for the team, which means either he's doing alright or being the beneficiary of good run support.  Winning this one seems unlikely, but then again, we've beaten former CY's this year, so who knows.

Wednesday - Marcus Stroman(7-4/5.15/1.36) vs Patrick Corbin(4-8/5.25/1.51)

Can't say that I like Corbin's chances against this lineup.  Too many walks and lapses in focus.  All we can do is hope that Marcus has his own issues.  I foresee a fair bit of offence in this game.

WAR PARTY

Donaldson - 5.0, Michael Saunders - 2.8 and Edwin Encarnacion - 2.1

Marco Estrada, Aaron Sanchez - 2.7, J.A. Happ - 2.0

TACO TIME

I predict that we'll get to the vaunted taco limit, just not sure that we'll win even if we do so....