The Toronto Blue Jays will open a three-game set against the Texas Rangers on Friday that will likely significantly alter their playoff aspirations - one way or another.
After dropping two of three against the Detroit Tigers in Toronto earlier in the week, the Blue Jays (76-77) fly to Arlington to battle the Rangers (76-76).
Toronto sits a game and a half out of the final wild-card spot in the American League, with the Cleveland Guardians now leading the AL Central and the Chicago White Sox in control of the wild-card spot.
Cleveland taking the lead in the division is significant because the Blue Jays own the tiebreaker over the Guardians but not over the White Sox, meaning they will need to gain another game to move into the final playoff spot in the AL.
“We’ll try to go 1-0 every day,” manager John Schneider said after the Jays salvaged a 5-1 victory on Wednesday to avoid the sweep against Detroit. “That’s it. It’s going to be another tough series [against Texas]. It will be a good off-day for everyone [on Thursday], but every day and every series is going to be tough and really important.”
The Jays are slated to have the top two members of the starting rotation take the mound in the first two games against Texas in Dylan Cease and Jose Soriano. There is no scheduled starter for Sunday’s game, though that spot in the rotation was filled by a bullpen game against Detroit.
“We have work to do,” Max Scherzer, Wednesday’s winner pitcher said. “It takes all of us, not only the starting staff, but the bullpen, the hitters. We have to win ball games. Our backs are against the wall. We’ve got to come out fighting and clawing, and keep finding ways to win ball games.”
Friday - Dylan Cease vs. Kumar Rocker
The Rangers have yet to announce their scheduled starters for the weekend series, but righty Kumar Rocker would be next up in the rotation.
The 26-year-old has an earned-run average of 4.54 over 28 games (25 starts) this season, his third in the majors.
In two career starts against the Jays, Rocker has allowed two runs over nine innings with 10 strikeouts. He pitched six shutout innings to pick up a win against the Jays on June 28, but has struggled recently. He’s allowed multiple earned runs in all but one of his past nine games.
Cease was neck-and-neck with New York Yankees righty Cam Schlittler in the AL Cy Young race for much of the season, but recent struggles (five walks in his last start over five innings, five runs allowed in his start before that) have all but given the award the Schlittler.
Still, for the pitcher who this past off-season received the largest free-agent contract given out in Blue Jays history (seven years, $210 million) this past off-season, this is a chance for Cease to prove why he was worth that money.
Cease allowed four runs over 4.2 innings with five walks in his only start against the Rangers this year in a loss on June 27, and he owns a 7.71 ERA over four starts against the Rangers in Texas in his career.
Saturday - Jose Soriano vs. Cal Quantrill
Canadian righty Cal Quantrill is slated to start Saturday’s game, though the Rangers again have not made that announcement yet.
Quantrill has been on fire since the beginning of August - in nine games (eight starts), he has allowed 10 earned runs over 50 innings for an ERA of 1.80.
Quantrill, whose father Paul pitched for the Blue Jays from 1996-01 and was an All-Star in the 2001 season, has dominated the Blue Jays over his career, logging a 1.59 ERA with 21 strikeouts over three starts.
Soriano is coming off a game in which he held the Tigers hitless through six innings before unravelling in the seventh, where he allowed five of the first six batters of the inning to record a hit before he was pulled after four runs crossed the plate.
Having spent his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Angels before joining the Blue Jays via trade in August, Soriano has a lot of experience against Texas. He owns a sparkling 2.84 ERA over eight games (six starts) in his career against the Rangers.
Sunday - Bullpen vs. Jacob deGrom
The toughest test of the series will come against superstar righty Jacob deGrom in the finale on Sunday.
The 38-year-old deGrom has a 3.79 ERA over 29 starts this year, but his career ERA of 2.68 is the best among active qualified pitchers.
deGrom has a career ERA of 1.65 against the Blue Jays in three starts. His last start against Toronto came in 2025, when the two-time Cy Young winner shut the Jays out over five innings.
Bullpen games have been hit or miss for the Blue Jays this season, as they often tend to be for most teams across the majors. The Jays went with a bullpen day against the Tigers on Tuesday in a brutal 10-1 loss. Michael Lorenzen allowed five earned runs over two innings to allow Detroit to blow the game open early, but Spencer Miles could also be an option.
The rookie and Rule 5 draft pick has a strong 2.65 ERA this season for the Jays and has not allowed a run in 14 straight appearances.
