Game #55 Preview: Blue Jays @ Nationals

Remarkably the Blue Jays actually have a legitimate chance to win the series tonight in Washington despite the depressed state of the fans the past few days. If the Nationals had no injury woes then this contest could be against Doug Fister or Stephen Strasburg, but instead it's against the beatable Taylor Jordan with Mark Buehrle starting for the Jays. Drafted in the ninth round of the 2009 draft, Jordan had a pretty volatile rise through the minor leagues, including Tommy John surgery, eventually becoming a pitcher who pitches to contact and features good control.

After earning a rotation spot in 2014, Jordan had his season cut short due to an arm injury and started this 2015 campaign in the minors. Seven strong starts at Triple-A Syracuse got him the call-up last week where he made one appearance in relief of Strasburg that wasn't too great. Now that Strasburg is on the DL, Jordan will get a chance to make a start and possibly get himself a rotation spot going forward. The righty uses a sinker, slider, and changeup to get a solid amount of groundballs but rarely racks up the punch outs. Against left-handed hitters Jordan throws essentially just a sinker and changeup combination, while right-handed hitters see a more balanced offering although the slider is featured almost a third of the time.

There's not a whole lot more to be said about the righty with two first names as his repertoire isn't that intimidating and features very little movement:

Hopeful Lineup

In an extremely small sample, Jordan has pretty big reverse splits with righties hitting him well.

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Josh Donaldson 3B
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Russell Martin C
5. Chris Colabello LF
6. Justin Smoak 1B (assuming Encarnacion is still banged up)
7. Kevin Pillar CF
8. Ryan Goins 2B
9. Mark Buehrle P

Bullpen Usage

Find The Link

Find the link between Taylor Jordan and the player who is second on the active career home runs leaderboard.

Enjoy the game (or only the first hour if you're a Tampa Bay Lightning fan like myself).