Ben Nicholson-Smith

Video is unavailable. TORONTO — Speaking after his start Tuesday evening, Chris Bassitt acknowledged that the early season performance of

TORONTO – Yariel Rodriguez's arrival in Toronto means the biggest challenge of his professional career is imminent, and the Cuban right-hander's presence may allow the Blue Jays to reconfigure their pitching staff a little, perhaps as soon as Saturday.

TORONTO – A sentence rarely used to describe MLB starting pitchers: ‘He struggles against righties.' The reason for that's pretty simple.

Alek Manoah is set to make another rehab start in Triple-A Friday. ( Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter )

Video is unavailable. TORONTO – This was a game the Blue Jays should have won. Granted, the Yankees are a formidable team, and sweeps are hard at this level.

Some top Blue Jays prospects are putting up eye-catching offensive numbers at triple-A, and their production has not escaped the attention of decision makers on the big-league team.

While Guerrero Jr. did stretch to reach the ball, he wasn't at full extension on the play, which any manager would expect a first baseman to make every time. The error overshadowed a strong night of pitching for the Blue Jays, who fall to 13-11 with the loss.

By the time the day ended, Barger would experience many big-league firsts at Kauffman Stadium as the Blue Jays lost 3-2 to the Royals.

It’s hard to find much fault with how the Blue Jays played in a rain-shortened 2-1 loss to the Royals Thursday, but it counts the same in the standings nonetheless.

KANSAS CITY — When Shohei Ohtani arrives in Toronto this weekend, he'll inspire a broad range of reactions, many of them pretty strong.