New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays: Series Preview

The Yankees traveled to Toronto for their second-to-last series with the Blue Jays of 2019. The Bombers have beat down on bad teams this year, specifically the Orioles, and so far this year they’re 8-5 against the Blue Jays who are 32 games under .500.

At home the Blue Jays are 29-42, so the Rogers Centre and the Canadian fan base hasn’t been a factor for the Blue Jays this year. One thing the Jays do have, however, is plenty of young talent. To begin, the Yankees will be facing two rookie starting pitchers in game one and game two of this series. On top of those rookies, almost everyone has taken notice to the Blue Jays’ three young studs, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio. All three players are the sons of former major league stars and have headlined Major League Baseball’s rookie class in 2019.

Guerrero Jr. has not lived up to the crazy amount of hype he had during spring training but you must keep in mind he is still only 20. If you want a sneak peak of how much power this kid has just re-watch the Home Run Derby. Bo Bichette made his debut on July 29 and in the 39 games played since, he has batted .306 with ten home runs. Biggio has not had a great season at all only batting .213 in 85 games this year.

The Yankees will be heavily favored in all three of these games. Here are the pitching match-ups we know of as of now.

Friday: Masahiro Tanaka vs. Anthony Kay

Tanaka gave up four earned runs in his last performance against the Red Sox. Tanaka struggled this season against the Red Sox, however, his last two outings before that were great. He only allowed two earned runs over 12 IP. Tanaka’s last performance against the Blue Jays was one of his best of the season as he threw eight shutout innings while only allowing three hits and striking out four.

Anthony Kay is a rookie for the Blue Jays and is making his second career start in the big leagues. In his first outing he threw 5.2, allowed four hits and two earned runs.

Saturday: James Paxton vs. Jacob Waguespack

James Paxton has been the ace he was advertised as recently. In his last four starts he has pitched 25.1 innings and has only allowed four earned runs and has struck out 34 batters. The Yankees will definitely need this version of Paxton once the playoffs begin.

Waguespack will be making his eleventh start of the season. He has pitched to a 4.55 earned run average so far. During an earlier meeting with the Yankees this season, he allowed three earned runs on three hits, two of them being home runs.

Sunday: TBD vs. T.J. Zeuch

The Yankees pitcher for Sunday still has yet to be determined, but the Blue Jays have announced that T.J. Zeuch will start for them in the final game of the series. Zeuch is also a rookie and he will be starting the second game of his young career on Sunday. In two appearances so far, Zeuch has pitched to a 5.40 earned run average in 8.1 IP.

It’ll be interesting to see how things play out this weekend for the Yankees offensively. Their big bats may have their way with the young rookie arms, however, the advantage could also go to Toronto since Yankee players haven’t seen them very much.

Go Yankees!