Guardians are in perfect position to take advantage of Blue Jays’ current flaws 

Sometimes timing can be everything in MLB. While good teams are always going to be good, there are very few times where a team is fully healthy and clicking for the duration of a 162-game season. 

That theme could help the Guardians this weekend, who are traveling to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in a three-game series.

After coming within one inning of winning the World Series last season, the Blue Jays currently sit at 10-16 and have one of the most unstable pitching staffs in baseball thanks to a variety of injuries and ineffectiveness. 

Although the Blue Jays are still a talented team, they’re clearly not at 100% and are more vulnerable now than they may be later in the season. 

The Guardians need to take advantage of that. 

The Guardians have a golden opportunity to beat up on the Blue Jays this weekend 

The biggest area the Guardians can take advantage of is Toronto’s aforementioned pitching staff, which has been decimated by injury. 

The Blue Jays currently have seven pitchers on their big league injured list, which has led to them needing to lean on Eric Lauter (6.75 ERA) more than they’d like along with signing Patrick Corbin off the street. 

Even though the Guardians are going to go against three solid starters in Max Scherzer, Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease, Toronto’s bullpen is running on fumes. 

Not only have they had to cover 106 2/3 innings (the fifth-most in baseball), but they have a 4.81 ERA and are in the middle of a closer controversy. 

Jeff Hoffman was lights out last season working as Toronto’s closer, but he’s struggled so bad this year (7.59 ERA in 12 games) that the Blue Jays were “re-evaluating his role” ahead of this weekend’s series. 

Regardless of whether or not the Blue Jays choose to keep Hoffman in a set-up role, it’s clear that the ninth inning is going to be an adventure, which will be a huge benefit to a Guardians team that loves to play in close games. 

Toronto’s lineup hasn’t been immune to the injury bug either, as they currently have three regulars (Addison Barger, Alejandro Kirk and George Springer) on the injured list. 

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still mashing and Ernie Clement continues to put everything in play, but Toronto’s offense is nowhere near the machine it was during last year’s postseason. 

Even though the Guardians are fighting through it a bit right now after losing three of their last four series, they’re going to have a great chance to bounce back later tonight thanks to Gavin Williams being on the mound. 

While the results from this series won’t help us a lot if these two teams meet in October, the wins count the same regardless.

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