Toronto Blue Jays keep winning

Many Yankees fans are letting it be known that the team is okay. Whenever second baseman Devon Travis returns from a shoulder injury, they will have as many as eight above-average hitters in their lineup on any given night, including bona fide superstars in Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson.

You have to figure the Yankees will hit again, but who will cool off the reborn Blue Jays?

Donaldson led the AL in home runs (five), runs scored (nine), total bases (27) and extra-base hits (seven) while batting.

When the Toronto Blue Jays made shocking trade deadline deals to land pitcher David Price and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, they might as well have pinned a target directly on the Yankees’ back, because the aim was clear: they wanted to win the division. The ball landed in the left field seats at Yankee Stadium and although that area was littered with Blue Jays fans, one disgruntled Yankee supporter happened to come up with the ball. “I know we didn’t score too much in two games”. “We’ll get after it [Tuesday] in Cleveland”.

Armed with a devastating changeup, Estrada has gone on to enjoy a career year, his victory on Sunday his 10th win of the season (against six losses), already three more than his previous single-season high.

These moved showed up this past week as the team went 4-2 for the week sweeping the Astros to open the week before losing two of three against the Mariners. One other major difference between the Jays and Yankees is that the Yankees did next to nothing at the trade deadline.

Not that they really needed any bats, but according to Baseball Reference, the Blue Jays acquired Cliff Pennington from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The shocker was the nature of the sweep. Every team celebrates the seventh-inning stretch, players send the ball around the horn after great plays and fans throw back home runs hit by the visiting team.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, the Bombers previously hadn’t been shut out in consecutive games since May 1999 though they did go on to win 98 games and the World Series that season. “Everybody was expecting a slugfest, but our pitching is pretty good right now”. Martin went 7 for 11 with two homers in the series as Toronto took two of three. It’s everything else they did in the series against the Yankees that caused shockwaves throughout the league. “Offense is tough to predict”, Girardi said.

Even so, Gardner still said he didn’t have a problem with the tradition. 191 from the day he returned a month ago.

And there is always the possibility that the 40-year-old Alex Rodriguez will hit the wall at some point.

Donaldson homered on right-hander Tanaka’s seventh pitch of the game, sending a first-pitch fastball into the Yankee bullpen beyond the right-center field wall.

Even as the Blue Jays hovered around. Adding a few pieces helped a lot.

“(The) whole series, starters and relievers were outstanding”, Bautista said. “We’ve had our struggles a time or two getting to the last couple of innings”.