Toronto Blue Jays missing golden opportunity with Yankees slide
By Kevin Henry
After looking like the most dominant team in Major League Baseball for the first three months of the season, the New York Yankees are in a six-week funk. While that may seem like an opportunity for the rest of the teams in the American League East to gain some ground, the Toronto Blue Jays have been mired in their own version of neutral or reverse as well.
Despite the struggles of the New York Yankees, the Toronto Blue Jays have been unable to gain much ground in the AL East
On July 2, the Yankees had the best winning percentage among all MLB teams, sporting a 58-21 record (.734 winning percentage). On that day, the Toronto Blue Jays were 44-35 and 14.0 games back in the race for the division. Flash forward to August 16 and the Yankees are now 72-44 (.621 winning percentage) after going 14-23 over their last 37 games. The Blue Jays, however, have not been able to capitalize on New York’s stumbles, gaining just four games in the standings while going 17-18 over that same stretch.
For a team that had such high World Series hopes heading into the season, the past few weeks have been a disappointment for Blue Jays fans, who have certainly let their feelings about the uninspiring play be known on social media.
Part of the reason for the lack of wins in recent days is that Toronto’s offense has gone back into a tailspin in August. When the calendar flipped from July (a month where the Blue Jays slashed .288/.338/.447 as a team), Toronto’s bats have gone into hiding, with the team slashing just .244/.296/.392. After scoring 134 runs in July in 26 games (5.15 runs per game), the Blue Jays have mustered just 41 runs in 12 games so far this month (3.42).
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While New York’s current 10-game lead in the division may be too much to overcome in the final 48 games of the season, the Blue Jays do face the Yankees four times later this week in the Bronx and three times in September in Toronto. Nothing is impossible, but Toronto will need to find its offense and capitalize on New York’s downward spiral quickly if the Blue Jays want to put any kind of pressure on the Yankees in the division race as well as secure a Wild Card spot.