Tuesday, July 3, 2018 | 7:07 pm
Rogers Centre | Toronto, ON
Zack Wheeler (2-6, 4.47, 1.33) vs. Marco Estrada (4-7, 4.53, 1.30)
PREAMBLE:
Well... it's here.
You know.
Joey Bats.
He's back in town.
Jose Bautista returns to Rogers Centre for the first time as a visiting player as the New York Mets roll into Toronto for a two-game series. After struggling as an Atlanta Brave, he moved on to the Mets and has made a solid impression thus far, slashing .250/.418/.476 (150 OPS+) with 3 HR as a Met.
The Blue Jays look to get back on track after losing the final two games of the Tigers series. The Mets have been absolutely rotten since an 11-1 start to the season, but they've won their past two games and the Jays have often displayed a maddening tendency to play down to their opponents' level (knock it off, dipshits).
NOTES:
Some Jose Bautista facts:
- Played on the same junior college team as Russell Martin (Chipola College, 2001)
- Wore 7 different uniform numbers as he bounced around the majors between 2004 and 2008 (27, 59, 14, 50, 7, 19 and 23)
- 288 HRs as a Blue Jay, second to Carlos Delgado
- 37.0 bWAR, second among position players to Tony Fernandez (would have been first if it wasn't for a putrid 2017)
- 6x All-Star, 3x Silver Slugger, 2x Hank Aaron winner
And we'll always have this:
Happy birthday to Yangervis Solarte.
RT to join us in wishing a very happy, dance filled birthday to @Solarte26!— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 3, 2018
Enjoy your day, #YanSolo! 🎈🎂🕺 pic.twitter.com/7l0mtXpatw
Look at what I just got (thanks, Amazon):
Hell, yeah.
LINEUPS: