Price Dominants Twins in Debut with Blue Jays
The trade deadline has come and gone and Major League Baseball heads down the home stretch with teams in every division battling for first place and teams in each league battling for the two wildcard spots.
In the American League East, the Toronto Blue Jays are 5 ½ games behind the first place New York Yankees. No team made more of a splash during last week’s trade deadline than did the Blue Jays.
Toronto went out and picked Troy Tulowitzki, David Prices, Ben Revere, Mark Lowe and LaTroy Hawkins. Both the Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles are battling the Minnesota Twins for the second and final AL wildcard spot.
However, Toronto has something else in mind and that is the title in the AL East.
One online statistics house gives Toronto a 40% chance of winning a wildcard, but the 5 ½ -game lead by New York gives the Yankees a 77.5% chance of winning the East.
However, the teams will play head to head on 13 occasions down the stretch, with the first three in New York this weekend.
New York placed Michael Pineda on the DL and Masahiro Tanaka has elbow ligaments that are a concern so they might attempt a trade during August. However, the Blue Jays could possibly block a deal if the Yankees make one.
In his debut on Monday night for Toronto, David Price struck out 11 allowing just one run in Toronto’s 5-1 win over Minnesota.
Price was given a standing ovation by the Toronto fans when he took the field to start the game.
Price is now 10-4 on the season after allowing just three hits and one run throwing 119 pitches.
Price put down the final 15 batters he faced and tipped his cap to the crowd when leaving the field following the eighth inning.
This season Price has Minnesota’s number. The new ace for the Blue Jays is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.16 in four starts versus the Twins this season.
Tulowitzki showed why the Blue Jays went out and traded for him last week as he singled to start the fifth and scored on the 27th home run of the season by Josh Donaldson.
With the win, the Blue Jays are just percentage points behind the Twins in the race for the final wildcard spot. However, Minnesota has two games in hand.
Ben Rowen was claimed off waivers by Toronto this week. The right-handed pitcher was assigned to Triple-A affiliate Buffalo.
