The Jays make a quick one day trip into Chicago for a make up game. Dylan Cease gets to start on his extra day of rest. It is also his first start of August after being pitcher of the month in July.

Some form of the Jays will take on some form of the Astros for a three game series. The Astros are in first place, 2.5 games ahead of the Rangers. There are on a six game winning streak and are 9-1 in their last ten.

The Cardinals come into town four days before the trade deadline. Per my proprietary trade calculator there is a 70% chance of at least one Blue Jay trade happening before this series ends. Monday is "THE BIG DAY" but you can't leave it all until the end, right? Plenty of Jays will be in the shop window this weekend, will that help or hiner the teams performance?

The wounded Jays limp into Washington for a three game series. The Nationals find themselves one game out of a wild card spot so they will be trying to improve that against the poorly playing Blue Jays.

One of the big Nationals stories is the fate of CJ Abrams. Even though the Nats are one game out of the wild card, rumours suggest that Abrams could be traded. Abrams hit two home runs yesterday and now has seven home runs since the all-star break, more than several teams including the Jays. The stories say the Nats are listening without actively shopping him. If the Nats keep on winning will they stop listening?

The ice cold Blue Jays face the Red Hot Red Sox. As baseball can be weird the Jays should win the series.

Tampa roll into town for a four game series carrying a five game losing streak. Can the Jays continue that losing streak? Monday sees a heavyweight matchup on the mound. Nick Martinez and his 2.65 ERA vs Dylan Cease and his 2.56 ERA.

The second "half" begins, 96 games played, 66 games left. And two weeks and three days to the trade deadline. The Jays play the following teams before the trade deadline: White Sox; Rays: Red Sox: Nationals and Cardinals. Thats two division leaders, the won nine in a row Red Sox, the Cardinals who have the same record as the White Sox, and the one game under 500 Nationals. Thats a total of 16 games. The Jays are 2.5 games out of the wildcard but they have to climb over five teams to get there. So, what record do the Jays need to have over the next 16 games for you to say we are in it to win it? 10-6, 9-7, or is 8-8 good enough?

We head into the all-star break with three games in San Diego. The Jays are 3-3 so far on their west coast trip. The next three will decide whether its a winning trip or a losing one. The Padres are 46-47 and are 3-7 in their last ten games so they are coming in on the colder side. The Jays have a two game, dragon inspired, win streak.

The Jays limp into San Francisco after Seattle manhandled them over the last two games. They do have a chance at redemption as the Giants are worse than the Jays. The Giants record is 37-52, 21 games out of first place in their division. The Jays are at 42-48, they would have to go 6-0 to reach the all-star break at .500.

The Jays roll into Seattle to play the Mariners for the first time since last October. You remember that series, the one where the road team won every game? Vlad was the series MVP and Jeff Hoffman saved the final game. Cal Raleigh hit four home runs in that series. Now, eight months later Vlad is in the dumps, Hoffman has lost his job and Raleigh is hitting .163. We have seen numerous "what's wrong with Vlad?" stories here in Toronto. Change the name to Cal and you know what's in the Seattle Newspapers.

Despite Raleigh's struggles the Mariners are tied in first place in the west but they are just two games over .500.

Today will be Bo all the time as he returns to Toronto. It might take some attention away from how bad the weekend was for the Jays. The Mets record is four games worse than the Jays and they sacked their manager last week. IN the long list of the things that have gone bad for the Jays this year John Schneider is on there but well down the list. However the 2025 playoff shine will start to diminish through the second half of the season.

So the Houston series did not go as planned, now the Jays have four games to turn it around. After the series loss this week the Jays are two games under .500, they need to win three of four to get back to that first step on the way to the playoffs.

Today is game number 81, the half way point. The Jays are guaranteed to have a losing record at the half way point. This has to be one of Vlad's worst half seasons. If you had put money down on Vlad to be eighth in home runs and ninth in OPS you could have made a lot of money. The Jays do not have an regular position player with an OPS over .800. Last year David Popkins was a hero, this year? He has avoided most negative publicity this season but is any of this on him?

The Jays had a day off yesterday due to rain and it did wonders for their bullpen. The price to be paid for that rest will come due in August but for this Astros series the bullpen is rested. The starters too get an extra day of rest. The Jays had a big comeback win on Saturday which should have given them a boost going into Sunday. Will it carry over into Monday?

The Jays roll into the windy city off the back of a sweep in Boston. Vlad hit a home run! His first in a month. Can he hit another before June is out? The Jays will roll out Gausman, Corbin and Cease, if the bats come through the wins should keep coming.

The limping Jays cruise into Fenway Pahhk for three games with Thursday's game an afternoon game. Then Its on to the windy city for three afternoon games so this is an unusual week with just two evening/night games.