Yankees (Rodon) vs Blue Jays (Gausman): 7/21/25, 7:07pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Take two out of three here and you put the Yankees in a real bind.

[John_Havok]

Just win series! Winning game 1 is a great recipe for that

[Grant77]

Make the Yankees hurt so bad that they sell at the deadline.

[Stangstag]

This series is huge.

 

Can be a big swing in the standings, we either come out of this:

6 games ahead if we sweep

4 games ahead if we go 2-1

2 games ahead if we go 1-2

tied with the Yanks if they sweep

[Terminator]

• Rodon vs. Gausman
• Schittler vs. Scherzer
• Fried vs. Bassitt

[Masterbather]

Nothing short of a sweep either way really changes much of anything with this series.

The pitching matchups aren't ideal but that was always going to be the case with them setting their roation to force us to face Fried and Rodon. 

Just don't get swept. I know they probably chase us down eventually anyway but it would hurt too much for it to be that sudden and in our ballpark. 

 

[Masterbather]

44 minutes ago, Terminator said:

• Rodon vs. Gausman
• Schittler vs. Scherzer
• Fried vs. Bassitt

This is very telling in terms of how the Blue Jays internally see our starting five given they could have set up the rotation however they wanted for this series.

Clearly they have all three of those guys ahead of Berrios. I wonder if it was a four-game series if Berrios would even be ahead of Laurer at this point.

[Omar]

I hope Gausman can establish his fastball early to make them chase his splitter. If/when he fails to do that he seems to struggle.  We need "good" Gausman tonight more than ever. Pitch around Judge and navigate the rest of the lineup. 

Our slap hitters should be able to put Rodon in his place🤪

[glory]

1 hour ago, Stangstag said:

This series is huge.

 

Can be a big swing in the standings, we either come out of this:

6 games ahead if we sweep

4 games ahead if we go 2-1

2 games ahead if we go 1-2

tied with the Yanks if they sweep

Jays own the tiebreaker so if they win 2 more games against the Yankees the rest of the season (they play 6 more times), then they win the season series. A Yankees sweep would tie the season series 5-5, so really just avoid that and the Jays would still be in a good spot. Obviously winning the series is the best outcome. 

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, Stangstag said:

6 games ahead if we sweep -Put a bow on it. The Jays are AL East champs.

4 games ahead if we go 2-1 -Jays then own the tiebreaker and that's a sizable lead. We are in the driver seat.

2 games ahead if we go 1-2 -We are in a good spot still but it'll be a dogfight.

tied with the Yanks if they sweep -Pain. Despair. Sell at the deadline.

 

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

• Rodon vs. Gausman
• Schittler vs. Scherzer
• Fried vs. Bassitt

Please tell me Schittler's first name is Adolf

[Terminator]

We need a teamwide plan on preventing the Yankees from stealing signs when they have a runner on second. They've stolen a few games this year by doing this.

[Terminator]

In the same vein, I think we could see some fireworks this series when you combine:

• The Yankees are still butthurt about the sweep a few weeks ago
• The Yankees proclivity to steal signs and cheat 
• It's a big series between teams that don't really like each other
• Aaron Boone is a giant @$$hole

The Yankees will deny that there is any sort of bad blood because they want to act like we are beneath them. But it's obvious that they HATE the Blue Jays.

[Stangstag]

1 hour ago, Terminator said:

We need a teamwide plan on preventing the Yankees from stealing signs when they have a runner on second. They've stolen a few games this year by doing this.

Yup, Kirk and pitchers need to be on alert 

[G-Snarls]

3 hours ago, Masterbather said:

This is very telling in terms of how the Blue Jays internally see our starting five given they could have set up the rotation however they wanted for this series.

Clearly they have all three of those guys ahead of Berrios. I wonder if it was a four-game series if Berrios would even be ahead of Laurer at this point.

In a 3 game series I you definitely don't use Berrios 

In a 5 game series I prefer Lauer personally or even piggy back them since they're both best over short starts 

[Stangstag]

4 minutes ago, G-Snarls said:

In a 3 game series I you definitely don't use Berrios 

In a 5 game series I prefer Lauer personally or even piggy back them since they're both best over shirt starts 

To be fair, this could just mean they don’t trust Berrios against the Yanks in particular. He did kinda gascan his last start against them

[Omar]

I sense a Stanton hamstring injury isn't far off. Maybe this series. 

[G-Snarls]

3 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

To be fair, this could just mean they don’t trust Berrios against the Yanks in particular. He did kinda gascan his last start against them

Oh absolutely 

[Terminator]

 

[Omar]

Bellinger not in the Yankees lineup tonight.  He is 2 for 22 against Gausman.  After Judge I fear Belli more than the rest. Could be a good thing for us if Boone is overthinking it. 

[Omar]

Barger? Oh yeah he's allergic to lefties. At least we got Jimenez' bat in there. 

[Laika]

Loperfido over Barger is gross 

[Terminator]

Our lineup vs. lefties always looks so disgusting but somehow we are 8th in baseball in wRC+.

Clement leading off and Schneider, Straw, Jimenez and Loperfido hitting 6-9 looks like a split squad spring training lineup.

[Vancouverite]

Prove me wrong Scheinder but having Loperfido and Jimenez in over Barger doesn't make sense on paper!!!

[JaysAllMighty]

Can you imagine if we had our best players in the lineup 100% of the time.  Schneider will always be a twit. 

[Stangstag]

Ticket prices for this series are insane. $150 for s*** 500s seats.

It wasn’t even sold out last week on Ticketmaster lol

[glory]

I like how Barger sits against lefties but Clement who has a 50 wRC+ against righties plays everyday. 

[Terminator]

Both Loperfido and Barger are going to suck against Rodon's slider so they must feel that using Barger as a pinch hitter later on is a better use of their talents. Plus, Loperfido is better defensively. 

Ideally, they should just bat Barger 3rd in the lineup every day. It would break up the righty mainstays (Springer, Vlad, Bo, Kirk) while making it tough to pick on Barger with lefty relievers late in the game. The Book says it's not as important of a lineup spot as it would seem anyway so it probably doesn't kill us in games like today with lefty starters on the mound.

[Terminator]

Yanks are light on lefty options out of the pen. Tim Hill is the only one and he's thrown two days in a row. Weaver has reverse splits so he's another option. The rest of them are all righties and some flat at out suck vs. left handed hitting.

When Rodon is out of the game the Jays should start deploying their lefty pinch hit options (Barger, Lukes, Wagner) aggressively early on. 

[Stangstag]

25 minutes ago, glory said:

I like how Barger sits against lefties but Clement who has a 50 wRC+ against righties plays everyday. 

Clement provides great D even when he isn’t hitting. That’s pretty much the difference. Plus gotta look at who would be playing his position (3b/2b) if he’s on the bench. We have a bunch of OF options but less IF options