Preview: Blue Jays (18-20) look to avoid sweep at the hands of Angels (19-17)

Well, this weekend sure as shit made the positivity from that 5 game winning streak disappear quickly, eh? We saw J.A. Happ struggle, Marcus Stroman get lit up for the first time, Jose Bautista’s reach base streak come to an end, Juan Francisco come down to Earth, Drew Hutchison come down with a case of the Brandon Morrows (finding the strike zone wise) and many other less than encouraging things. But fear not! Tonight, ace Mark Buehrle takes the hill in an attempt to further defy logic and science and math.

Buerhle’s 1.91 ERA leads the American League and his 6 wins are tops in all of baseball. Yes, he’s been excellent to start the year. But when all the advanced stats point to it being as much a result of luck as anything – and Buerhle saying so himself – you’ve got to be worried about how much longer it lasts.

The Angels are definitely a prime candidate to initiate Buerhle’s return to Earth from the depths of outer space where his performance currently resides. The Angels are second only to the Rockies in terms of OPS versus left handed pitching. And as I like to say when it comes to Rockies hitting stats, the Angels are first in amongst teams that don’t play half their games in performance enhancing thin air when it comes to OPS versus lefties.

The Blue Jays (13th in OPS vs. LHP) also face a southpaw tonight in the form of C.J. Wilson. In his career versus the Blue Jays as both a starter and reliever, Wilson has posted a solid 3.59 ERA. However, his career 4.91 ERA in the Dome is not so solid.

To make matters worse for the Jays’ cold lineup, no Jose Reyes tonight! Before you freak out, it’s apparently just a day off. For those of you keeping score at home of all the recent roster moves, that means the Blue Jays bench tonight is Juan Francisco and Josh Thole (Reyes is still obviously available in an emergency scenario). Cool. Francisco takes a seat tonight because of C.J. Wilson’s inclination to throw a ball with his left hand and Francisco’s inclination to not be able to hit baseball’s that are thrown out of a left hand, as we discussed on the podcast. Small sample size warning for the upcoming stats, but if you think Francisco’s career .165/.197/.226 line vs. LHP is hilarious, try his 2014 splits vs. LHP on for size: .100/.095/.250. Somehow, one of his 2 hits this year vs. LHP is a home run. Go figure. So Francisco sits, but not just because of those hilarious numbers, but because Brett Lawrie makes his return. So at least there is some good news lineup wise.

Back to your regularly scheduled bad news programming lineup wise, in the head scratching department, Steve Tolleson leads off tonight and Jonathan Diaz is back on the team. Since his demotion to AAA, Diaz accumulated a grand total of 0 hits in 27 plate appearances. Talk about a promotion well earned! If this were any other business, people would be speculating on whether or not he slept with his boss,. Although in this case, I think we can rule it out. What purpose having Diaz and Tolleson on the same team is beyond me. Anyway, here’s the lineup that C.J. Wilson will probably pitch his first perfect game against tonight:

Again, here’s a treat for being a good person and finishing the post. The Onion Knight Davos Seaworth at the Dome with R.A. Dickey! I know there’s gotta be a good joke about this out there somewhere, but I’m having trouble coming up with something so I’m just going to try to volume-joke and hope that something good pops out. Would it be physically possible for Dickey to teach him how to throw a knuckleball? Do Jays fans really need another illiterate fan? Even though he jumped on Stannis’ bandwagon, at least we know he’s loyal! Is he lobbying Rogers for a loan because the Iron Bank turned him down? Blue Jays fans could have told you that was a bad idea considering how tight they are with money! Hey-o!

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