Blue Jays Have More to Worry About Than Rays

TORONTOBack during the shortened spring training in March, it was the Toronto Blue Jays who were the talk of the town. The up-and-coming team with a lineup full of big bats seemed poised to take the American League East crown in 2022.They were the preseason betting favorite too, over the Tampa Rays, who were the two-time defending division champion, and the New York Yankees were a bit of an afterthought, the third choice on every gambling site.Obviously, it turned out that everyone was wrong about the Yankees. They can still rake, as expected, but theyre playing at a record pace58-22 for a .725 winning percentagebecause all five of their starting pitchers are far exceeding expectations and Clay Holmes has been a lockdown closer https://www.shopteambluejays.com/178-George_Springer_Jersey.But enough about them.The Rays and Blue Jays, in the thick of things for some of the three wild-card spots, just finished playing five games in four days in Toronto. And even excluding recency bias, I have one big takeaway from the weekend:The Blue Jays have a lot more to worry about than the Rays do.The Rays won the series 3-2, winning the last three games 6-2 George Springer Jersey, 11-6, 7-3. It was a rout, and even the 24-11 cumulative score is somewhat deceiving because they Blue Jays scored five runs on Saturday after already being behind 10-1. Most of their runs came against journey Tampa Bay relievers that were on their way back to Durham the second the games ended.The Rays have a dramatically better pitching staff than the Blue Jays. Yeah, I know, the Rays missed ace starter Alek Manoah by a day, but the rest of their rotation has some issues and the bullpen is a mess.There are no such concerns about the Rays starting rotation. The concern has been whether they can hit enough, and after getting 24 runs and 41 hit in about a 29-hour window, some of those concerns have gone away. There are no guarantees they stay hot with the bats, of course, but it was a very encouraging sign.