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| I do enjoy a Ryu Day |
"Vintage Ryu cruises in series-clinching gem" is the extremely accurate headline of the game summary posted at MLB.com. I have mentioned this previously, but I think I like watching Hyun-Jin Ryu pitch as much as anybody the Blue Jays have ever had. To see him go a bunch of times through the order, fooling hitters so thoroughly that guys who can catch up to 100 if its straight(ish) are way late on pitches that come in around 88MPH. It's just the best. Because of who I grew up watching, the archetypal crafty (indeed, cræftig) lefty is Jimmy Key, and we all loved Jimmy Key, but this is something else entirely. I did not think there would ever be a Blue Jays pitcher I would enjoy more than Roy Halladay -- and being able to watch him pitch in person so many times was incredible to me -- but yeah, Hyun-Jin Ryu, here we are. He didn't get a lot of help from Trent Thornton, it pains me to say, who came on in the eighth, gave up a homer, hit a guy, then gave up another homer. But Chatwood had another nice appearance (he has had a few now!) in the ninth to lock it down. The Blue Jays' big inning on Saturday was a bat-around ninth; on Sunday it was a four-run bat-around fifth that was not quite as headlong as that but pretty exhilarating nevertheless. And no homers today, oddly, but a bunch of doubles, including one for Téo (back from the Paternity List [congratulations!]), two for Lourdes Gurriel, and three -- three! -- from Reese McGuire. A charming moment on commentary occurred when Pat Tabler, with reference I believe to McGuire's second double on the day, referred to the way he was whacking it all over the field, an innocent remark made delicious by how McGuire got arrested for jacking it in his car (perhaps a truck, now that I think more on it) last year in Florida. Anyway, lots of fun on Father's Day! Except for Marcus Semien, the only Blue Jay who failed to reach base -- 0 for 6 with a pair of strikeouts and five left on. With George Springer coming back this week, it looks like, one wonders if Semien stays at the top of the order (where, aside from pretty much every day but today, he has been awesome), or maybe drops down to five? If they don't put Springer at five for a bit as he gets back into things, it's probably gotta be Semien or Bichette they drop down there, right? Lineup order is one of those things that has been demonstrated pretty definitively to not matter all that much beyond the dead-obvious (first half of the lineup or so: one's best hitters; the rest: one's poorer ones), but that makes it no less fun to think about, and indeed, to dream on a little. Miami up next, and it'd be real nice to sweep, as we are back to .500 now, and it is time to climb.
KS
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