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.

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.

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's two-run single broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the slumping Detroit Tigers 6-1 on Saturday night. INEVITABLE pic.twitter.com/qUGzKhW14E— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 27,

In the ninth, Bo Bichette broke a scoreless tie in the eighth inning with a two-run single. The Blue Jays added insurance in the ninth inning with three home runs. Nathan Lukes, George Springer, and Vladimir Guerrero all went deep. It was the 18th of the season for Springer.

The New York Yankees visit the Toronto Blue Jays as the AL East foes clash in the Monday opener of a 3-game series north of the border.

The first place Toronto Blue Jays hosted the second place New York Yankees this week with the teams splitting the first two games. The Yankees loss on Monday put manager Aaron Boone in a sour mood for a podcast appearance, but the team bounced back with a 9th inning victory on Tuesday.

Ben Rice's ninth-inning home run helped the New York Yankees salvage a 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. Toronto's four-game win streak and franchise-best 11-game home win streak were snapped with the loss,