Chansky’s Notebook: Beware The Blue Jays!

The Blue Jays are a serious threat to the Cubbies.

Now that Toronto has swept Texas and knocked the Rangers out of the baseball playoffs for the second straight year, are we ready to admit the Blue Jays are a team, perhaps the only team, capable of beating the Chicago Cubs, especially with the home-field advantage the American League has in the World Series?

Toronto has home run bombers all over its lineup, from Encarnacion to Bautista to Donaldson to Tulowitzski to Saunders to Martin – six players with at least 20 homers during the regular season. Their starting pitching is as deep as any team with Estrada, Happ, Dukie Stroman, Sanchez and Dickey, and their bullpen is solid if not spectacular.

Most importantly, after struggling during certain pockets of the regular season, the Jays are now playing their best baseball, hitting their stride at exactly the right time. They won two out of three in Boston to secure the wildcard home field and went to Texas, where the Rangers had the best record in the American League, and won the first game with slugging and the second game with defense and pitching.

Then they went home to the thunderous Sky Dome, or Rogers Center, and outlasted the Rangers in extras to sweep the ALDS and earn a nice rest to get their rotation set for the AL championship series that begins this weekend. Whether plucky Cleveland, or even if the Red Sox pull a miracle comeback, the Jays will be favored because they have the best all-around team of all remaining in the American League.

And getting to play four at home and only three at Wrigley Field, you have to love their chances to win their first World Series in, what, 30 years? The Cubs have become America’s team, sentimental favorites to break the curse of the Billy Goat. And I, for one, will be pulling for them. But I’ve seen the Jays at their best, and their best is as good as the Cubbies best. If that turns out to be the match-up, what a World Series it will be.