2021 Game Sixty-Three: Blue Jays 18, Red Sox 4

 

What a beautifully composed photo
(and obviously I endorse the content)

The entirely lovely duties of a routine Sunday afternoon kept me from following today's game in any way other than checking in on the play-by-play results on the MLB app on my phone, but every time I looked in I found myself resembling the meme-guy whose shirt reads "Sickos" all the more. It was as though I was though I were seeing the results of a best-case-scenario game of Baseball Mogul or, if you must, Out of the Park (I must check to see if they've gotten any further with their mobile offering -- OOTP is not as fun for me as BM but hey, what's on phones is on phones, if you see what I mean). That Robbie Ray struck out ten in six innings is one (very good!) thing, but that the Blue Jays became the first visiting team in the history of Fenway Park (which, for the record, I don't even really find charming anymore, like I feel like as a society we have progressed past the need for Fenway Park) to hit eight home runs. Eight! That's so many! Téo's two (two!) three-run shots take pride of place here, I think, but then there was also Gurriel, Bo, Vladdy, Biggio (two days in a row!), Semien, and lastly Tellez, off of second-baseman Christian Arroyo (hey, get it while it's here, Rowdy). What a weekend it has been! Aside from blowing it Friday night. But even so! Also, regarding yesterday's also very pleasant game, I neglected to mention that Vladdy stole second base so cleanly that there wasn't even a throw (it was on a very slow curveball), and I guess he got so excited that he tried again in the seventh and got thrown out. It felt very human.

Hey has it occurred to you, too, that Vladdy could totally win the triple crown this year, and have like 10 or 11 fWar, and still kind of rightly lose out on the AL MVP because of Shohei Ohtani? And that this is because baseball is just so awesome this year? This is something that occurred to me whilst we roamed a small wood. Another thing I was thinking about is how, for the many losses lost in the most egregious way possible in recent weeks, the Blue Jays are three games out of the playoffs, having played one of the toughest (is it maybe still the toughest?) schedule in the league from a strength-of-competition perspective; it's only going to get better, as far as that goes (come on, Orioles). There's still like a hundred games to go but these are things I would ask you to reflect on.

KS