{"id":677983,"date":"2026-04-17T23:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677983\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T23:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T23:42:27","slug":"blue-jays-gameday-april-17-toronto-takes-on-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677983\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays Gameday (April 17): Toronto takes on Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> are hoping a trip to the desert will refresh a dry offence this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team is hoping to get back to its winning ways after dropping its fifth successive series, losing two of three games to the Brewers in Milwaukee. After a dramatic, extra-innings 9-7 win in the series opener, the Jays\u2019 attack fell flat in consecutive 2-1 defeats to fall to 4-11 over their last 15 games\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite the meagre offensive production, the Blue Jays held leads into the fourth inning or later in those final two games. Following Dylan Cease\u2019s six standout innings on Wednesday night, Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty got them through the seventh with the 1-0 lead intact. Tyler Rogers<\/a> got the ball next but couldn\u2019t field a weakly hit ground ball hit by David Hamilton for a leadoff single. Brandon Venezuela\u2019s decision to let a bouncer drop rather than field it (which he also bobbled) was called an error and led to William Contreras\u2019 game-tying RBI single. Brice Turang came up next and hit an RBI groundout that gave the Brewers the go-ahead run.On Thursday, Toronto took the lead on a textbook sacrifice bunt by Tyler Heineman<\/a>. Milwaukee tied it on a Luis Rengifo sacrifice fly in the fourth inning before unleashing a series of small-ball jabs that gave them the lead for good in the seventh. Walk, sac bunt, bunt single, and sac bunt represented the death by a thousand cuts that gave the Brew Crew the slimmest of leads that felt insurmountable, and ultimately was.One good thing that emerged from Thursday\u2019s game was the performance of starting pitcher Patrick Corbin<\/a>, who scattered four hits over 5.2 innings, with six strikeouts and just one walk. His second start was much better than his first, and it is an encouraging sign, given that the staff hasn\u2019t gotten any quality length from their starters besides Cease and Kevin Gausman.Eric Lauer<\/a> was supposed to get the start after dealing with flu-like symptoms that affected his last two starts. Instead, Braydon Fisher will be the opener in a bullpen game. With Trey Yesavage and Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos working their way back from injury, and Shane Bieber transferred to the 60-day IL, the Blue Jays need Lauer to find the form that made him such a valuable addition to the rotation last season. He could be used in a bulk role following Fisher\u2019s outing.<\/p>\n

On the other mound will be Canadian righthander Mike Soroka, who\u2019s been a valuable, low-cost addition to the D-Backs rotation after signing a one-year, $7.5 million free agent contract in December. He\u2019s striking out 34.3% of the batters he\u2019s faced, but is also giving up an expected wOBA contact (xwOBAcon) of .530, which is a stat measuring the expected outcome of a ball in play based solely on exit velocity and launch angle, suggesting he could experience some good fortune early this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Davis Schneider will bat leadoff for the second straight game. He\u2019ll be followed by Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez will hit cleanup, then it\u2019s newcomer Lenyn Sosa, who\u2019ll bat fifth and play DH. Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez, the team\u2019s ealy leader in homer runs, bats sixth, while the lineup is rounded out by Kazuma Okamoto, Ernie Clement, and Tyler Heineman.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let\u2019s set up Friday night\u2019s matchup with the Blue Jays desperate for a win.<\/p>\n

Location: Chase Field, Arizona<\/p>\n

First Pitch: 9:40 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Watch\/Listen: Sportsnet, SN590<\/p>\n

Starting Pitchers<\/p>\n

Toronto Blue Jays \u2013 Braydon Fisher: 0-0, 0.93 ERA, 9.2 IP, 12 SO, 1 BB<\/p>\n

OPPOSING TEAM \u2013 Michael Soroka: 3-0, 2.87 ERA, 15.2 IP, 23 SO, 6 BB<\/p>\n

Lineups:<\/p>\n

Blue Jays:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Davis Schneider \u2013 LF\u00a0Daulton Varsho \u2013 CF\u00a0Vladimir Guerrero Jr. \u2013 1B\u00a0\u00a0Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez \u2013 RF\u00a0Lenyn Sosa \u2013 DH\u00a0Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez \u2013 SS\u00a0Kazuma Okamoto \u2013 3B\u00a0Ernie Clement \u2013 2B\u00a0Tyler Heineman \u2013 C<\/p>\n

D\u2019Backs:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ketel Marte \u2013 DH\u00a0Corbin Carroll \u2013 RF\u00a0Geraldo Perdomo \u2013 SS\u00a0Jose Fernandez \u2013 1B\u00a0Nolan Arenado \u2013 3B\u00a0Ildemaro Vargas \u2013 2B\u00a0James McCann \u2013 C\u00a0Tim Tawa \u2013 LF\u00a0Jorge Berrosa \u2013 CFCHECK OUT OFF THE ROSTER \u2013 NEW EPISODES EVERY WEEKDAY\"\"<\/a>Off The Roster is Toronto sports. Hosted by Cabbie Richards, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio, this is the go-to morning conversation for everything happening in the 6ix \u2013 Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and everything in between. From breakout performances and questionable trades to throwback jerseys, viral moments, and the stories fans are actually talking about\u2014it\u2019s smart, sharp, and never scripted. Live weekday mornings on the Nation Network YouTube channel<\/a> and available wherever you stream podcasts, the show delivers real opinions, real chemistry, and real Toronto energy. Missed an episode? Catch up anytime. Off The Roster\u2014The new sound of the 6ix.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Blue Jays are hoping a trip to the desert will refresh a dry offence this weekend.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,4,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-677983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-toronto","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","14":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116422702375181058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}