Toronto Blue Jays sweep Oakland Athletics, win sixth straight game
By Hayden Kane
The Oakland Athletics have been one of the biggest stories in Major League Baseball for the entire season thus far thanks to their dominant run differential and the fact that they have consistently had one of the best records in baseball.
With their sweep of the A’s in a home series this weekend, the Toronto Blue Jays might have taken over as one of the biggest stories in baseball. The team has now won six straight and they continue to be the hottest team in all of baseball.
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The emergence of the Toronto pitching staff has been the most impressive part of this recent streak. In this weekend sweep of the A’s, they held that deep Oakland lineup to a total of five runs in three games. That allowed them to sweep one of the elite teams in the league despite the fact that they scored only three runs themselves in two of those victories.
On Sunday it was J.A. Happ, a pitched who has largely been a mystery since his arrival in Toronto as a top prospect, who pitched a gem. Happ went seven scoreless innings and struck out seven hitters in the process.
Besides improved pitching, the Blue Jays have also gotten a boost from good base running, something that manager John Gibbons discussed after Sunday’s win.
The Blue Jays stay home for the rest of this week for series against the Tampa Bay Rays and Kansas City Royals. The Rays are coming in off a contentious sweep of their own against the Red Sox, so that stands to be an interesting divisional series this week.