Jays, O’s fight for AL East lead on MLB.TV

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Over the next five weeks, the Blue Jays and Orioles will play a combined 51 of their 64 remaining games against American League East opponents.

With the East race simply too close to call right now and postseason positions on the line, each ensuing series for these teams will become their new most important series of the season. That starts tonight in Baltimore, when the Blue Jays come into town clinging to a slim two-game lead over the Red Sox and a three-game cushion on the Orioles.

While the Orioles are within a sweep of regaining a slice of the AL East lead, there’s also plenty of playoff suitors right behind them who will also be in action Monday. In Kansas City, two of baseball’s hottest teams aim to take a step closer to completing their turnarounds. Meanwhile, the National League Wild Card race features equally captivating matchups in Queens and Chicago.

It’s a new week, which means new opportunities to watch all of these playoff chases unfold on MLB.TV.

MLB.TV Premium has returned with the same features as last year, and is only $49.99 for the rest of the season. This package has the best value and provides access to more than 400 devices and a free subscription to the MLB.com At Bat Premium app (a $19.99 value). It offers the best picture quality ever — a new 60 frames per second — for supported devices. Monthly signups for MLB.TV Premium are now underway as well for $24.99.

The new MLB.TV Single Team package is also available as a $39.99 yearly subscription. You can watch a single team’s live out-of-market games in full HD.

Here’s what to watch for today in the Majors (all times ET):

Jays, Orioles fight for East supremacy: TOR@BAL, 7:05 p.m.

The Orioles were able to salvage Sunday’s series finale against the Yankees, but the weekend’s first two games — in which New York hung a combined 27 runs and 36 hits on Baltimore — exposed the club’s most glaring flaw: lack of starting pitching.

Left-hander Wade Miley was acquired at the non-waiver Trade Deadline from Seattle to eat up innings, and that skill will become very important down the stretch for a club that has seen its starters contribute an AL-worst 702 2/3 total innings this season. Miley, however, has recorded an out in the sixth inning just once in his first five starts with Baltimore.

“We’re at that stage of the season where it’s about results,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said of Miley recently. “Obviously, [he’s] got a pretty good feel about what he has to do to be successful. Obviously, [he] hasn’t been getting results here we hoped to get lately, but he’s got a track record for bouncing back.”

Toronto, meanwhile, is riding high for a couple reasons. First, the Blue Jays strung together back-to-back come-from-behind victories on Saturday and Sunday to complete a sweep of the Twins. Second, the sluggers are heating up, as Josh Donaldson rolled to the first three-homer day of his career and Jose Bautista recorded his first three-hit game of the season in Sunday’s 9-6 victory.

Stat that matters: …

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