Boston at Toronto

Jameson Taillon takes the mound for Toronto tonight in just his second start since the Blue Jays picked him up from the Cubs on August 2, and that ugly 5.96 ERA belongs mostly to Chicago, not here. His Toronto debut against Houston came with a noticeably livelier fastball, the kind of first impression that means more than a bloated season number still carrying dead weight from his old team. Sonny Gray is the best story in Boston's rotation this year, 14-2 with a 2.78 ERA, and I'm not arguing he isn't good. I'm arguing one dominant arm doesn't clinch a series in this division. Toronto has won seven of its last ten and takes the mound off consecutive wins, the latest a road upset over Zack Wheeler and the Phillies as a plus-money underdog. Kazuma Okamoto has been Toronto's most consistent power threat all season, and Andrés Giménez is in the middle of one of his hottest stretches at the plate, the kind of lineup that can scratch out enough against even a great arm on one given night. Boston's road record is real, but so is a Toronto club playing its most complete baseball of the summer at home. We don't need the better team over 162 games tonight, just one competitive lineup catching a pitcher on a short professional relationship with his new club. Take the Blue Jays as my MLB Game of the Week.