Blue Jays 8, Mariners 3: It's About Damn Time

Jose Bautista (left) seconds before being hellaciously bagtagged by Yunel Escobar (right)

After seven innings of making Jason Vargas look like Cy Young, the Blue Jays totally got a hold of the Mariners bullpen in a bat-around eighth that put six runs on the board, three of them coming by way of a Jose Bautista home run that owned particularly hard. (Strangely, for all that Bautista has been a beast thus far [1.125 OPS, haters], he'd only knocked in two runs, both on solo home runs, before the three-run shot today.) 


The Blue Jays went with their B roster today, really, but pretty much everybody ended up with at least a hit, except for John MacDonald, who we do not ask or expect to hit, and Juan Rivera, who can't be gotten rid of quickly enough to suit me. Top of the sixth, he grounds to short, and  he just kind of lopes out of the box until the short stop bobbles it, and so he gets his oh shit run on, and then the throw still beats him by a step. Which is all utter nonsense. I totally get that it's a 162-game season, and it's a grind, and there are going to be times in August when you're hurt and it's hot and you're playing a day game after a night game and they've started testing for amphetamines now and there's just no way you're going to be able to bust it down the line on every single routine play. I get all of that. But today, it's April, and god damn it, you're Juan Rivera, which is to say you've earned nothing. You are the fourth outfielder on a third-place team at best. My wife has never heard of you, bro. Run, Juan. Run.  


Unfortunately for Kyle Drabek, all of this happened too late to get him the win, but he had another solid start, giving up two earned runs in five and two-thirds. He picked Ryan Langerhans off first, too, which was pretty tight. 


And so farewell for now, Seattle: I admire your beautiful ballpark, and have long felt a fondness for you in your capacity as the Blue Jays' 1977 expansion cousins. Also it was awesome how Ken Griffey Jr. played for you, because that guy was amazing. But I kind of can't believe we dropped two of three to you just now, because this year you are an awful, awful baseball team.

Only five-and-a-half months to go, bro, stay strong.

KS