LEADING OFF: Jays, Cubs, Bucs seek sweeps; Fernandez to doc

Injured Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman, who is taking summer courses at Duke University, posted a photo on Twitter to show he was watching the game despite being in class. Stroman had the game on his phone, which he hid behind his laptop screen.

Blue Jays 2, Yankees 0. What made his feats even more impressive was that his home park was the notoriously pitcher-friendly O.co Coliseum in which singles, runs and HR numbers are suppressed.

But mostly he went all-in to acquire two superstars, Tulowitzki and Price, while Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman opted to protect his best prospects and stand pat at the deadline. “Now they can’t get him out”.

At a most inopportune time the Yankees suddenly have gone as cold with the bats as they were ridiculously hot a week ago.

Among his AL counterparts, Donaldson finished the week first in home runs, runs scored, total bases (27) and extra-base hits (seven), second in slugging percentage (1.038), tied for second in RBI, tied for fourth in walks (five) and tied for fifth in on-base percentage (.484). Next time they play New York they nearly certainly will need more than 10 runs in the series and that starts with hitting with runners in scoring position.

Yes, the Yankees lost three games straight to the Toronto Blue Jays.

To watch Tuesday’s Oakland A’s vs. Toronto Blue Jays game live online free, use the feed provided by MLB.TV at this link, where the streaming subscription service of Major League Baseball is offering the matchup as its “Free Game of the Day”, meaning the game may be streamed live by anyone, without a fee. While teams do tend to regress toward their underlying metrics, especially early in the season, we can capture additional signal by measuring a team’s ability to actually win ballgames (shock!).

The best player on the team has been Josh Donaldson, who is third in the majors with 31 home runs. The Orioles managed take two of three before losing two of three against the Los Angeles Angels. The Blue Jays close out their series with Oakland on Thursday against Sonny Gray, who is one of the top candidates for the AL Cy Young award. 5 hits. 3 walks.

Donaldson replied to his teammate’s tweet minutes later.

The lose moves the Twins one game back of the Blue Jays for the second Wild Card spot in the American League. The Blue Jays are one of just three teams with six or more double-digit home run hitters this year (Houston and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the other two).

A better explanation is that the last two weeks are an anomaly, both for the Blue Jays and the Yankees.

However, it’s not just that he fits right in with the A’s; it is what he’s done in his first four games since joining the team that has been really impressive. “It’s unfortunate that two of the three hits he did give up were home runs”. Although there were some concerns about the sub-standard results he had against the Bronx Bombers entering the series, he was not concerned and for good reason. For context, Toronto is on pace for “only” 855.

They saw quite a contrast in styles over three days in this series, as Price followed up Dickey with his overpowering stuff, and then Estrada finessed the Yankees into submission on Sunday, baffling them with his 77-mph changeup.