The Toronto Blue Jays (40-41) will look to continue their recent winning ways, as well as further their ascent up the American League East standings today at 1:07 p.m. in the Rogers Centre against the AL Central leading Detroit Tigers (43-37). The game can be live streamed here; Blue Jays fans can listen in on SN590, while Tigers fans can hear the radio broadcast on 97.1 The Ticket.
The Blue Jays will send R.A. Dickey (7-8, 4.72 ERA) to the mound against one of MLB's most difficult lineups, featuring a red-hot Miguel Cabrera and left-handed masher Prince Fielder.
The inconsistent Dickey offered Toronto an ace-level effort in his last start, going nine innings, giving up two hits, no runs and striking out six in a big win against the Tampa Bay Rays. In June, Dickey has been either brilliant or a mess, with almost no in-between. In two June starts Dickey gave up a combined 13 runs over 11 innings; in the other three outings last month he pitched 23 innings, surrendering just one run while setting down 14 batters on strikes.
The Tigers lineup is a grinder, however. Cabrera is making a serious bid for a second straight Triple Crown. Right now he's hitting .373, with 25 home runs and 82 RBI. A year ago at this time, Cabrera had 16 home runs, 62 RBI, and carried a .313 batting average.
The Blue Jays have mashers of their own too, in Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista, and the sparkplug of their batting order, Jose Reyes, is back in action. Reyes has been slow to get back into his rhythm since the his ankle sprain, batting .200 with no home runs and no stolen bases in his last five games, but he was red-hot before his injury.
The boppers in Toronto's order have carried the load, and once he returns to form they could be AL East front runners in no time. Facing them today will be Jose Alvarez (1-1, 3.78 ERA).
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