The Toronto Blue Jays are alone atop the American League East — for the first time since 2016 — and no one seems more annoyed about it than Michael Kay.
Five weeks ago, the Jays were seven games back. Now? They’ve leapfrogged the Yankees after handing them a four-game sweep in Toronto, the first in franchise history at Rogers Centre. The Bronx Bombers have lost 14 of their last 20 games. The Jays, meanwhile, are surging and making sure those like Kay have a fork handy.
And despite since eating crow, Kay wasn’t buying it at the time. On his ESPN New York radio show, he brushed off the idea that the Blue Jays were anything close to a first-place team.
“The Blue Jays are not a first-place team, I’m sorry,” Kay said definitively. “If you look at the run differential, the Yankees’ run differential is +105. The Blue Jays, after a 12-5 win, finally got in the positive yesterday; they’re +4. Do you realize they should be a .500 team because of a +4 run differential? And the Yankees should have at least four or five more wins with a +105-run differential. They’re not playing great baseball. I’m sorry, they’re not.”
That sound you hear? A broom sweeping away excuses.
Toronto has won two straight since Kay’s rant and now leads the Yankees in the standings, where it actually counts. And on Sportsnet, Jamie Campbell made sure Kay’s words didn’t go unchallenged, bringing a broom to set and twisting the knife.
“I can think of a certain Yankee broadcaster, in fact, who is gonna have to go on his show tomorrow and admit that the Blue Jays are a first-place team, because the standings prove it,” the Canadian sportscaster quipped.
Turns out, there’s no stat to explain being swept into second place. And we’ll see if Kay goes on air to explain why the second-place Yankees somehow aren’t a second-place team either.