Blue Jays set to face Angels in critical Wild Card series

Smoak popped out to shortstop Aybar. Ru.

Jays of the Day: Price (.190 WPA), Martin (.110 for a 1 for 4 with a walk) and Donaldson (.103). Cron dropped Russell Martin’s popup behind the bag in the third inning and booted Ben Revere’s sharp grounder in the fourth.

Donaldson sent his 34th homer deep into the bullpens beyond left field in the third inning before delivering a two-run single in the fourth and an RBI double in the fifth. The Jays are far more talented than the Angels.

In an interview on a local radio station in Toronto this week, ESPN’s Keith Law suggested that the baseball industry isn’t gearing up for Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos, whose contract reportedly expires in October, to hit the open market this winter. In the sixth, Donaldson lofted a sacrifice fly to left field. And the top two candidates (Josh Donaldson and Mike Trout) just so happen to be facing each other in action this weekend.

Blue Jays: 2B Devon Travis will join the team in Texas next week to have his injured shoulder examined. With Utley’s locker cleaned out, there is a different vibe in the clubhouse in which players like Francoeur, who hit his 12th homer of the season in the third inning, are as much a Phillie as anyone else.

Crandall added that the higher revenue could ease the pressure on the Blue Jays from the falling Canadian dollar because player salaries are paid in American currency. “The pitching’s been outstanding, the hitting’s been incredible pretty much all year”.

“I heard an ESPN analyst say the magic benchmark number for a wild card team is being five games out at the start of (September)”, said pitcher R.A. Dickey. Bautista flied out to right fielder Calhoun. The Blue Jays are 5-14 in the last 19 meetings.

Toronto put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh, thanks to a two-run home run by Justin Smoak off Jose Alvarez. Encarnacion singled to right.

Toronto reportedly plans to use Hague, who is 6 feet 3 inches tall and 225 pounds, as a reserve first baseman or possibly a pinch-hitter in its series with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Crandall said analysts have always been skeptical of the value of Rogers’ ownership of the Blue Jays, especially during the down years. David Price and Troy Tulowitzki were two of the big-name acquisitions.

“If ROI was the only thing dictating this, I think the money you could derive from selling the Blue Jays could probably be used somewhere else in a cable company”, he said.

As he does before every start, Hector Santiago leaned over the mound and drew lines with his glove from each side of the rubber toward home plate, the parallel markings a reminder for the Angels left-hander to “stay in my lane”, as he puts it.

Price struck out C.J. Cron, throwing three-straight changeups for a 1-2 count before pumping a 97 mile-per-hour zinger past Cron’s flailing bat. That spelled trouble with Trout and Albert Pujols due up but Price got Trout to strike out looking and Pujols hit a lazy ball to right.