Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles, Blue Jays: The good, bad and injured

The Bad: Blue Jays, Red Sox

It is odd to say this about the seventh-ranked team in the American League, but the Toronto Blue Jays (33-27) are bad. At least bad by the AL East standards.

There is a lot to like about the Blue Jays as they are top in the AL in OPS and second in hits with 555. Their pitching isn’t too bad either, coming in at fourth in the AL in strikeouts (560) and average against (.234).

The biggest problem the Blue Jays have is they are giving up too many home runs. They are third in the AL behind the Oakland A’s (12-48) and Chicago White Sox (25-35), two of the worst teams in the MLB.

Yusei Kikuchi is the biggest culprit in the home run-allowed problem in Toronto. He has given up 17 long balls in 61 innings pitched. That is a home run in every 3.5 innings. Only Ken Waldichuk of the A’s has a worse home run to the innings pitched rate.

Alek Manoah has not been helping much this season either, with a 1-6 record in 12 starts. His 1.77 WHIP is the worst in MLB among pitchers with at least 55 innings — his ERA of 5.46 is problematic. In addition, Manoah’s WHIP and ERA are double his last year’s performance of 0.99 and 2.24.

Then the Red Sox (30-29) are in last place in the AL East. Their pitching is a big reason why as they are fourth from the bottom in earned runs allowed (269), average against (.252), and ERA (4.66). They trail the Blue Jays in homers allowed with 77, with 42 of these long balls coming at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox are getting out-homered at home 37-42, despite being top five in the MLB in SLG (.432) and OBP (.335), and RBI (293). So the Red Sox are bad and were predicted to be going into the season … but they aren’t that bad.

They are just above .500 on the season and only 4.5 games behind the Yankees for the final Wild Card spot. However, the Red Sox are not sellers just yet or buyers and, with a few adjustments and improvements, they could be right back in the playoff hunt.