The Toronto Blue Jays have firm control of the AL East Division while the New York Yankees are dealing with what could be a critical injury.

The New York Yankees fired the starting gun on the AL East arms race. Here is how Ross Atkins and the Toronto Blue Jays front office can respond.

Things are going about as well as they can for the Toronto Blue Jays, who have skyrocketed up the AL East standings and entered Saturday owning a 5 1/2 game lead over the New York Yankees. If you told a Blue Jays fan in January that Toronto would have the sport’s best record on July 26,

Bo Bichette hit a two-run homer, Chris Bassitt struck out eight in a season-high 7 1/3 innings and the Toronto Blue Jays took advantage of four New York errors to beat the sloppy Yankees 8-4.

On nights like Wednesday — facing defensive performances like the Yankees' — the Jays' quiet strength became loud again.

As the MLB trade deadline approaches, the Arizona Diamondbacks could have interest in two of their veteran starting pitchers.

Right as Yankees manager Aaron Boone was about to take the ball from ace Max Fried in the sixth inning in Toronto on Wednesday night, YES Network cameras zoomed in on the left-hander’s throwing hand. Fried, who had been wiping his hand on his jersey toward the end of his outing, had blood above the nail on his pinky finger.

Or at least that’s how it seemed after the Yankees bumbled through a four-error, 8-4 defeat by the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night at the hostile Rogers Centre — the type of ugliness that sparks worst-loss-of-the-year talk.