The Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Arizona on Thursday looking for something they have not found all season: a series win. The Diamondbacks, by contrast, came in having won seven of their last 10 games and holding a playoff position about a tenth of the way through the season.
That gap has been hard to ignore. Toronto has won only one series this year, a sweep of the Athletics to start the season, and has not taken another since then. Arizona has lost only one series all season and has looked like one of the hottest teams in baseball while the Blue Jays have been scuffling through injuries that have left them even more banged up than the home club.
For Arizona, the matchup has come with Michael Soroka suddenly changing the shape of the rotation. He was expected to be a placeholder until Merrill Kelly returned, but instead he has become arguably the best starter on the Diamondbacks and is on pace for 230 strikeouts. Outside of a four-run first against the Phillies, Soroka has not really had a bad inning all season. Brandon Pfaadt, meanwhile, was pushed to the bullpen instead.
The Blue Jays have had no such luxury. Their inability to stack wins has been the larger story of the first month, and the White Sox sweeping them only sharpened the concern around a roster that has had to keep patching holes. Toronto came west already needing a reset, and this trip now asks it to survive a deep Arizona staff with little momentum and a short supply of healthy bodies.
The pitching matchups offer little comfort. Easton? Wait not. Eric Lauer had thrown 12 2/3 innings and allowed 11 hits, 11 earned runs, three home runs and nine walks. In his last outing, he gave up seven runs and five walks in 5 1/3 innings against the Twins, and the White Sox knocked him out in just two innings in the start before that. Zac Gallen opened the season by giving up four runs in four innings, then responded with 11 innings of two-run baseball before allowing three runs in five innings against the Phillies last time out.
The back end is no kinder for Toronto. Max Scherzer had gotten out of the third inning only once in three starts, and he was coming off an eight-run outing against the Twins. That leaves the Blue Jays asking for outs in a place where Arizona has been piling up wins and chasing the Padres and Dodgers in the NL West. In the American League East, where nothing comes easily, Toronto needs more than a good night. It needs a series, and it needs it now.
Nelson, too, has had an interesting season, which only adds another layer to a series that already feels lopsided on paper. Arizona has done enough early to matter, and Toronto has not. If the Blue Jays cannot find a way to change that in Arizona, the season will keep moving further away from them while the Diamondbacks keep climbing.