Blue Jays 5, Rangers 2: Corey Patterson Dropped an RBI Bunt Single To Win It in The Ninth, No Big Deal

Bautista hit by a fastball from Pedro Strop, hater.

Had Adam Lind not crushed a two-run shot to right, had Brandon Morrow not gone six strong, had the bullpen not shut the door the rest of the way, had Jose Bautista not kept things even with a diving catch down the right field line in the eighth, in fact had but one of these awesome things not happened, Corey Patterson would not have been in a position to bring the go-ahead run across in the top of the ninth with a bunt single on a safety squeeze. But they totally did happen, and so Patterson dropped one down like it was scarcely a thing. If you enjoy such small ballery, you should totally watch the highlights, and, while you're there, why not also have a look at the weirdest play ever?


Here's what happened: bases loaded, two out in the top of the ninth, ground ball to Adrian Beltre at third. Beltre is awesome, so this ought to be it for the inning, right? But the ball kicks off the heel of his glove for his first error of the season, which is in and of itself a strange thing. But it got much stranger a moment later when Jose Bautista, who is so awesome that he can't help but be awesome even when he is mistaken, breaks for third after he apparently (and, again, mistakenly) thinks the base is open. It is not: there is totally a baserunner there. It's Corey Patterson. But Bautista, I guess, was so focused on Beltre's inattention and off-the-bagness that he was like I have such an awesome idea and just took off. He realizes his mistake before he gets to third, but he's way way way off second, so he draws a throw from Beltre, but the throw gets away from second and dribbles into the outfield, allowing Patterson to score. What?


But all of that zaniness has been overshadowed, at least among the Blue Jays blognoscenti, by the post-game demotion of Travis Snider to Triple-A Las Vegas. I am not as perturbed by this as many, because Snider has been not just horribly unproductive thus far (.181/.276/.264) -- he's also been taking awful, off-balance, truly wretched swings over, around, and through breaking balls with alarming regularity. Like, as bad as that slash line is, he's looked worse, if you can believe it. He's only 23, and thus far from a lost cause, but the idea was that this year he'd be given a full season with the big club to figure it out. This is what has angered many of my blogging betters. But I don't really care, because I don't want to watch this guy out there just sucking every day. I really don't. Does this make me short-sighted and wrong? Possibly. But fuck it.


KS