{"id":2039267,"date":"2025-09-21T16:46:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2039267"},"modified":"2025-09-21T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T16:46:16","slug":"blue-jays-aim-to-end-slump-secure-post-season-spot-vs-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/blue-jays-aim-to-end-slump-secure-post-season-spot-vs-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays aim to end slump, secure post-season spot vs. Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"post-6409612\">\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Losers of four straight and having failed to secure a potential post-season berth on consecutive days, the slumping <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" data-team=\"toronto-blue-jays\" data-league=\"mlb\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/baseball\/mlb\/teams\/toronto-blue-jays\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> will look to regain their form against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Toronto is aiming to both avoid a sweep and lock up a playoff spot with a win at Kauffman Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Catch the action on Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+, with first pitch at 2:10 p.m. ET \/ 11:10 a.m. PT.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"components_block-acf-snippets__kpdtK\">\n<li><picture><\/picture><\/li>\n<li>\n<h6>Watch Blue Jays vs. Royals on Sportsnet<\/h6>\n<p>The Toronto Blue Jays look to clinch a post-season berth as they wrap up a three-game set against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. Catch the action on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+, starting at 2:10 p.m. ET \/ 11:10 a.m. PT.  <\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/schedule\/\" target=\"_blank\">Broadcast schedule<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/baseball\/mlb\/players\/trey-yesavage\/9a9747c1-f45d-4999-896d-3979471f2ef5\" class=\"sn-player-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-player=\"9a9747c1-f45d-4999-896d-3979471f2ef5\" rel=\"noopener\">Trey Yesavage<\/a> takes the ball for his second career MLB start after setting a Blue Jays franchise record with nine strikeouts in his debut, also allowing only one run over five innings. The imposing right-hander struck out a staggering 160 batters over 98 minor-league innings as he ascended all four levels in his first professional season. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/baseball\/mlb\/players\/michael-wacha\/db6ced3d-7838-4a7c-92a5-50d0b63dac3b\" class=\"sn-player-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-player=\"db6ced3d-7838-4a7c-92a5-50d0b63dac3b\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Wacha<\/a> will toe the rubber for Kansas City. The right-hander flummoxed the Blue Jays the last time he saw them on Aug. 1, allowing only one run over eight innings. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>The 34-year-old owns a 3.79 ERA with 117 strikeouts and 41 walks over 161.2 innings this season. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Toronto has also struggled against the Royals in this series, scoring only one run in each of the first two games and being outscored by a margin of 22-2. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Over the last week, the Blue Jays have scored only 11 runs and have the worst slash line (.163\/.215\/.247) in the majors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Daulton Varsho&#8217;s solo smash was the lone source of offence in Saturday&#8217;s 2-1 loss. The left-handed-hitting slugger now has 19 home runs in 64 games. Only Cal Raleigh and Giancarlo Stanton are averaging more home runs per plate appearance than Varsho this season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Yet Toronto will still look to add thump to its lineup, potentially in the form of Anthony Santander, who went 2-for-4 with a single, double and two RBIs while playing left field for the Buffalo Bisons on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Meanwhile, Bo Bichette reportedly began to do light hitting and tee work in the batting cage on Saturday. The star shortstop is pursuing a return in October after being ruled out for the remainder of the regular season with a PCL sprain in his left knee. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Bassitt&#8217;s 15-day IL stint will finish on Oct. 3, making him eligible to return for the start of the division series the following day. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>If the Blue Jays clinch, they will have made the post-season in three of the last four seasons. They finished last in the AL East in 2024 and last played in October in a wild-card loss to the Minnesota Twins in 2023. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>But even if they secure a post-season spot, the Blue Jays can&#8217;t get comfortable yet, as the AL East division title and a coveted bye to the ALDS will still be up for grabs. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<p>Heading into Sunday&#8217;s action, the Blue Jays are up two games on the second-place New York Yankees, and up four games on the Boston Red Sox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.sportsnet.ca \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Losers of four straight and having failed to secure a potential post-season berth on consecutive days, the slumping Toronto Blue Jays will look to regain their form against the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. Toronto is aiming to both avoid a sweep and lock up a playoff spot with a win at Kauffman Stadium. Catch [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2039268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2039267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Blue-Jays-aim-to-end-slump-secure-post-season-spot-vs.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2039268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}