2021 Game Seventy-Three: Blue Jays 9, Orioles 0

 

That's 24 for Vladdy now

The Blue Jays have had pitching troubles this season, but they haven't had, and don't have, bad pitching, really: they had a bullpen that was the best in the league, and then the worst in the league, and now they've settled in between; there have been iffy starts from iffy starters, but in the last several weeks their starting pitching has been among the best in either league. The bullpen was for sure frustrating for a while, but I feel like if you're getting irked by the pitching, you don't actually have bad pitching: you have okay pitching you wish was pitching better. When you actually have bad pitching -- and we have all been there -- you don't feel annoyance or frustration so much as abject pity. And that is what it's like to watch the Orioles this year. They just run these guys out there who have really no chance, and while it is pretty neat to see Lourdes Gurriel hit a grand slam off one of them in a bat-around first, for example, on a basic human level it is also pretty dark. The Orioles could very easily lose a hundred games this year, and in fact at the pace they've set so far, it would be kind of remarkable if they only lost a hundred games this year.

More cheeringly, although it took Anthony Kay several thousand pitches, he gave up no runs on five hits and two walks (eight strikeouts!) in five innings, and the sort of B-Squad bullpen pitched an efficient four innings behind him. Also the emergence of "Reese McGuire: Lefty-Batting Catcher who Can Hit?" turns one's thoughts to Greg Myers' 2003 season, if one is me, and I welcome that thought-opportunity (thoughtportunity) very much. The Blue Jays have won five straight with three more games against Baltimore this weekend, and a quick glance reveals that the pitching matchups look . . . favourable. The Red Sox and Yankees play a series this weekend so whatever happens there, the Blue Jays will be gaining on somebody. And Tampa Bay plays the Angels, so who knows, maybe they will get badly Ohtani'd. It could happen!

KS