New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays: Series Preview After one of the most exciting Yankees weeks in

recent memory, the Bombers are enjoying a well-deserved day off on Monday before hosting the Blue Jays in a three-game series. The Bombers haven’t seen the Bluebirds since the second week of the season, during which the Yankees went 2-4 across six games. Much has changed since Bo Bichette walked off Chad Green on April 14th — the Yankees went 23-12 and now sit in a tentative playoff spot, while the Jays have stumbled a bit to a .500 record and fourth in the AL East. They’re currently on a six-game skid, having just been swept by the red-hot Rays.Toronto has scored 33 more runs than New York this season, but has also allowed 24 more. Although Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is enjoying a spectacular season, George Springer has only played in four games and is back on the IL, putting the pressure on Marcus Semien, Bo Bichette, and Teoscar Hernández to pick up the slack (and they’ve done well, for the most part). The Jays are also struggling to find pitching after ace Hyun Jin Ryu, who the Yankees are fortunate to dodge this series.Tuesday: Corey Kluber vs. Steven MatzWhenever the Blue Jays get their first hit off Kluber, it’ll be the first hit he’s allowed in almost two weeks. Kluber’s breaking ball was extra-sharp in his no-hitter against Texas on Wednesday, a weapon he could use to get ahead of hitters or finish them off. Kluber’s changeup also helped him generate plenty of weak contact. Of course, facing the Blue Jays is a lot different than facing the Rangers, and they did rough him up a bit early on in 2021. Kluber has heated up since then and is unbeaten in his last five starts while pitching to a 1.78 ERA and a .171 batting average against, averaging more than a strikeout per inning.Matz, who turns 30 on the weekend, has been his usual self for the Blue Jays this season, his first outside of Queens. On the season, he’s notched a 4.69 ERA, 1.38 WHIP and 92 ERA+. Start-to-start consistency has long eluded Matz, who began the year 4-0 with a 2.31 ERA but has pitched to a 6.93 ERA in his last five outings. While strikeouts are up this year, he’s still allowing too many baserunners. In seven career outings against the Yankees, he’s 1-3 with a 6.83 ERA.Wednesday: Domingo Germán vs. Alek ManoahGermán will look to continue his resurgent season on Wednesday. Since his demotion on April 11th, Germán has gone unbeaten in six starts while pitching to a 1.93 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. He was particularly effective in his last start at Texas, throwing seven shutout innings. He’s yet to throw more than 92 pitches this season, but whatever he’s been doing has been working. Over this recent stretch, he’s performed like the number three starter the Yankees have been chasing for so long.This would have been Anthony Kay’s spot in the rotation, but the Blue Jays demoted him after a poor start on Thursday. With Nate Pearson working on his mechanics in the minors and Ross Stripling booted from the rotation (he went seven as the “bulk guy” on Monday), Toronto only has three traditional starters at the moment https://www.nyygear.com/babe-ruth-jersey. Thus, originally, we suspected that Wednesday would be a bullpen game, but it was later revealed that the Blue Jays would be calling