FanPost

AL East & Wildcard Races: August 4-10

Let's start off by looking at how things shaped up last week:

W L
Toronto 5 3
Baltimore 5 2
Seattle 3 4
Kansas City 4 3
Tampa Bay 3 4
New York 3 4

Pretty good week for the Jays so far as they have gained at least half a game on every team. Let's hope to gain even more ground this week. Heading into Sunday the Jays sit 2.5 games behind the Orioles for the division lead. They currently hold the second wild card spot and are 2 games up on Seattle. Kansas City and New York follow at 2.5 games back.

Now onto this weeks matchups!

Toronto

The Jays are off Monday before starting a big 3 game set against the Orioles. Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers then come into town for the weekend series

Tor
Off
Buehrle 3-9 Norris
Hutchison 5-1 Chen
Happ 1-2 Gonzalez
Dickey 4-5 Sanchez
Stroman Det Scherzer
Buehrle Det Price

The Jays-Orioles series seems to be the biggest series the Jays have played in quite some time. Bud Norris has a 4.65xFIP vs lefties this year and could struggle against the Jays lefty-heavy offence. He had his best month of the season in July however and is coming off 7 scoreless innings against the Angels. Wei-Yin Chen seems to be Baltimore's best starter while also being left-handed. He has allowed just 1 earned run in his last 15.1IP and has a 3.71xFIP for the season. I'm hoping the Jays call up Kevin Pillar for this one as they have been forced to play several players that should probably be platooned. Miguel Gonzalez posted a 1.82 ERA on the heels of a 4.74xFIP. He has a 5.15xFIP against lefties this year, so hopefully it is a good day to be a Blue Jays' hitter.

Mark Buehrle will start off the series for the Bluejays, who is coming off a rough month of July where he posted a 4.97xFIP. Drew Hutchison pitches in the second game and will try to avoid the long ball at the Rogers Centre. The Orioles have just 4 left handed batters on their roster, which is good news for Hutchison who fares much better against righties. J.A Happ may not be as happy seeing a Righty-heavy lineup, but hopefully his new found velocity can help him out.

The week does not get any easier for the Jays when Detroit comes into town. By xFIP standards Anibal Sanchez has reverse splits this year, but is pretty even for his career. He has a 3.76 xFIP for the year. Max Scherzer has allowed 2 runs or less in 6 of his last 7 starts. He has a 3.14xFIP for the year, but lefties have more success against him with a 3.83 xFIP. He is extremely good against righties. David Price has been outstanding this year. He has pitched very deep into his starts and has posted a quality start in his last 12 games.

The Tigers have the second best offence in the AL against lefties, but the Jays will throw out just one lefty (who seems to have reverse splits). The Jays will hope to have Brett Lawrie back by the end of the week.

Baltimore

The Orioles head to Washington for one game before taking on the Jays and the Cardinals for 3 game sets.

Balt
Gausman 7-3 Roark
Norris 9-3 Buehrle
Chen 1-5 Hutchison
Gonzalez 2-1 Happ
Tillman 12-2 Masterson
Gausman STL Lackey
Norris STL Lynn

Roark, Buehrle, Hutchison, Masterson and Lynn all have xFIP's over 4.4 against lefties. It should be a good week for the Orioles left handed hitters, though (as I said above) they have just four of them. Tanner Roark has a 3.75xFIP for the season and has been particularly good over the last 2 months. His xFIP is under 3 against righties.

The Jays-Orioles series was discussed above, but I will point out here that the addition of Andrew Miller gives Baltimore 4 left handed relievers on their active roster. It will be important for the Jays to have some right handed bench players late in the game.

Justin Masterson and Lance Lynn are both very tough on right handed batters. John Lackey seems to be the toughest matchup of the week as he has posted a 3.35 xFIP for the year. The Cardinals trade acquisitions at the deadline really made this a much tougher series for the Orioles.

Seattle

Seattle has Monday off before hosting the Braves for 2 games and the Whitesox for 4.

Off
Hernandez 4-2 Wood
Young 7-3 Teheran
Elias 13-3 Carroll
Paxton 4-1 Quintana
Iwakuma CWS Noesi
Ramirez CWS Danks

The pitching matchups always seem to look pretty good when King Felix and Hisashi Iwakuma start in half of your team's games for the week. The Mariners catch a big break by not having to face Chris Sale in a 4 game series.

On the bright side, the Mariners face 3 lefties in 6 games. The Mariners have just a 79wrc+ against lefties for the season, but the additions of Austin Jackson and Chris Denorfia may help that. Scott Carroll has a 4.9xFIP against left handed hitters this year, so that could be a strong offensive performance from the lefty-heavy Mariners. The Braves have been much better against left handed starters but will not see one in this series. Seattle will be without Michael Saunders and Corey Hart for the week.

UPDATE: Erasmo Ramirez will start Sunday in place of Felix Hernandez, who will be pushed back 1 day to face the Bluejays

Kansas City

The Royals have monday off before heading out west to play the Diamondbacks and Giants.

Off
Duffy 12-2 Miley
Ventura 4-3 Collmenter
Guthrie 6-2 Nuno
Vargas 4-2 Bumgarner
Shields SF Hudson
Duffy SF Lincecum

Eric Hosmer recently hit the disabled list and should be out for the next 6 weeks. The Diamondbacks have really struggled this year and will be without pretty much everybody. Paul Goldschmidt, Chris Owings, Cody Ross and likely A.J Pollock will miss this series with injuries. The Royals will have to face the Diamondbacks best starting pitcher in Wade Miley however.

Things get tougher for the Royals when they head home to play the Giants. Angel Pagan is currently on a rehab assignment and it seems like he could be back for the start of this series. Madison Bumgarner, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum are tough to go up against.

New York

The Yankees play 4 against the Tigers before the Indians come to town for a 3 game set.

NYY
McCarthy 2-1 Scherzer
Kuroda 3-4 Price
Capuano 5-1 Verlander
Greene 1-0 Porcello
Rogers 10-6 Bauer
McCarhty Cle Kluber
Kuroda Cle Tomlin

Tough week for the Yankees as they are up against 3 aces in Scherzer, Price and Kluber. Justin Verlander has struggled to a 4.40 xFIP this year, but is coming off a pretty good start against the Rockies. The Tigers have had a lot of success against left handed pitching and Chris Capuano has had command issues vs right handed hitters over the years.

Josh Tomlin was recently recalled and will be up against Hiroki Kuroda on Sunday. Tomlin has a 3.12 xFIP in 86.2 MLB innings so far this year. The Indians will continue to be without Michael Bourn for this series.

Final Thoughts

All in all, it looks to be a fairly tough week for the Jays. A series win against the Orioles would go a long way to picking up some ground on the division this week. For the wildcard race, the Mariners scare me the most. Take your guess at how many games the Jays will win this week in the poll.

Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.