2021 Game Ninety-Nine: Blue Jays 13, Red Sox 1

 

"Swinging" in the rain haha

Well the Blue Jays looked pretty good to wrap the (160-game, 670-day) road-trip: everybody had at least one hit and one RBI, Vladdy hit a fairly towering shot over the green monster for his thirty-third home run of the season, and Hyun-Jin Ryu allowed but two hits in six innings and didn't walk a soul. My phone ran out of power just after Vladdy's homer, like he wasn't even finished rounding when the bases when all I saw was "s a m s u n g" instead of hugs with Bo Bichette (not as good!). The trade deadline is today, of course, and while I am interested to see who, if anyone, the Blue Jays are able to add aside from Brad Hand (not at all a bad pickup -- between Hand and Romano, the back-end of the bullpen honestly looks fine for the rest of the way), the biggest deal by far is that the Blue Jays are actually back home, and will play in front of fifteen thousand fans at the SkyDome (obviously a much, much lower number than capacity, but I have been to plenty of games at the SkyDome with fewer than fifteen thousand fans; and its fine [and arguably better, as nobody is crowding you]). Their first game at home will be their 100th of the season. I am a little emotional about it. 

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Eight: Red Sox 4, Blue Jays 1 (F/7)

 

I don't know why this picture makes me hear
 a Jon Miller call of "safe!" specifically; but it does

Steven Matz was just sort of okay, and the Blue Jays bats never really got it together, but a neat thing that happened was Jarren Duran kind of hitting an inside-the-park-home run, only not quite (that part is less neat). I was honestly pretty surprised that they charged George Springer with an error on this play (not that it really hurts Springer; it hurts Duran): Duran ripped the ball into the gap, it rolled to the wall, was dropped for a sec and rolled like no more than like two feet by Springer, who made a good throw to Espinal, who made a good throw home. Does this look like a triple and an error to you? The top reply to that linked video reads "WHERE THE FUCK IS THE OFFICIAL SCORER I JUST WANT TO TALK" and those are my thoughts as well only dialed up a little bit. Weird!

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Seven: Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 1 (F/7)

 

I honestly want that shirt tighter

For at least a little while this afternoon -- after Robbie Ray allowed but a lone run and struck out eight in six innings (a 3.04 ERA on the year!), and both Randall Grichuk and George Springer dinged dingers -- the Blue Jays were a mere 3.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics for the final AL Wild Card spot. Is this largely because the Athletics still were still in the middle of their game (a comprehensive walloping of the Astros), rather than at its end? I mean, arguably, sure. And the back end of the Blue Jays/Red Sox doubleheader unfolds as we speak (and how that audit stands who knows save heaven [Hamlet reference]). But for all the nonsense trade deadline takes that abound from people who should definitely know better -- trade Robbie Ray! trade Marcus Semien! because we don't understand how any of this works! what is a qualifying offer! -- that's how far back the Blue Jays were, two days before the trade deadline: 3.5 games. As mentioned previously, I have begun to limit the amount of JaysTalk (both official and unofficial) I take in because it it is just objectively bad stuff, but also I think part of the problem is that what I am listening to when I go out for runs these days is the FanGraphs Audios of a better vanished time (of FanGraph Audios), with all the Carson Cistulli and Dave Cameron one could hope for. It may not surprise you to learn that two fellows now employed by the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres, respectively, would have more interesting things to say about baseball than contemporary Twitter takeists, but it's true!  Love those guys (mostly Carson).

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Six: Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 4

 

You know what, he seems nice

This was the second-straight game in which you might have thought it was going to be enough when Bo Bichette put the Blue Jays up by a pair, but the bullpen couldn't hold it, and what you get in the end is a 5-4 loss. A drag, certainly, and yet I cannot claim to have been fully dragged by it, in that we are very much attuned to the Tokyo Olympics at the moment, and so my baseball engagement is largely (though not exclusively!) confined to play-by-play data and Twitter videos. Let me tell you: it is not at all an unpleasant so to do. Still with Twitter, and Blue Jays Twitter specifically: my goodness there are a lot of legitimately terrible takes as the trade deadline draws (ever) nearer. I have unfollowed two prominent accounts in recent days! I couldn't handle it! Guys it's just baseball, and what's more, a single baseball season; take it easy. 

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Five: Mets 5, Blue Jays 4

 

 I like those sunglasses (not for me, but for him)

When Bo Bichette singled an 0-2 pitch into center field to put the Blue Jays ahead 3-1 in the top of the sixth, I honestly thought that was going to do it. But nope! A good start from Ross Stripling, but the bullpen (which is now just about league-average, by the way) couldn't hold it. Pete Alonso, two-time home run derby champion whose rookie card values are a problem for set completion, homered three times this weekend, which was pretty much the difference in what really, really could have been a series win for the Blue Jays, but which was, instead, not one of those at all. And yet! We head into the week of the trade deadline four games behind Oakland for the final playoff spot, and with a really sweet schedule the rest of the way (as soon as these four games in Boston are behind us). Could there be an arm out there for the getting? Or is this what we have to work with? I think it is pretty clearly not the year to go "all-in," nor do truly "all-in" kind of moves really even look like they are maybe even possible this year. I do think there is reason to think the Blue Jays will be able to stay within sight of that last wildcard spot the rest of the way but I have been way more wrong about way more important stuff so you can only take any of this so far I guess. Off to Boston!

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Four: Blue Jays 10, Mets 3

 

Sometimes when the fellas do this one you can see
 they actually say "boom" if you look real close

After a fairly listless Friday night with the bats, Charlie Montoyo shuffled the order and was immediately proven a genius by the five Blue Jays home runs that followed: Springer! Semien! Bo! Téo times two! Conspicuous by his absence in this list is Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but he ripped a double off the wall that got there so fast George Springer had no chance to score from first; think about how ripped-off-the-wall of a double that had to be. Batting George Springer leadoff does not really count as a bold move, I guess, but I like it, and I like Vladdy hitting second even more, probably because I am still very much under the sway of the early twenty-first-century SABRmetric notion that, while it will barely matter over the course of the season, your best hitter should nevertheless be batting second. Semien third makes a lot of sense, and Bo Bichette in the clean-up spot is pretty neat. So I am all in! 

There is also the matter of George Springer's catch. I am pretty sure this is the best catch in Blue Jays history, and I say that having seen I think all of the leading contenders. Devon White in the 1992 World Series for what should have been a triple play is unlikely to ever be matched for context, of course, and (current-Met!) Kevin Pillar certainly had a bunch of great diving ones in his time in Toronto, but Springer's (which you can see here ["Certified Glover Boy," writes the ever-ready Blue Jays Twitter social mediaste]) is the best of any of them as far as I can recall. 

In closing, here are four Bo Bichette/Vladimir Guerrero Jr. screengrabs Ian Hunter posted after the game. Enjoy.

KS

2021 Game Ninety-Three: Mets 3, Blue Jays 0

 

It's a classic look

Only three Blue Jays hits on the night, which is lamentable, but one of them was a single for Alejandro Kirk! He's back! And probably back for a good long while, as Danny Jansen's hamstring issue is thought to be a doozy. I am pleased to report that whilst Kirk may well have undergone a programme of side-bends and sit-ups, he has in no way lost the charismatic physique which first launched him to stardom; may it remain as long as it pleases him. Former-Met Steven Matz pitched well, but really nothing much doing here. I was struck once again by how much I like the look of Citi Field, nicest of the late-retro ballparks? We see it so seldom.

KS     

2021 Game Ninety-Two: Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 4

 

Five of these: five too many? 

Robbie Ray has been the Blue Jays' best starter this year, but despite his many successes he remains somewhat "prone to the long ball." He gave up three of them in his five innings of work last night, and Trevor Richards gave up two after that. Not good! As for Blue Jays homers, Vladdy hit his 34th (a total he never comes close to when simming seasons in Baseball Mogul [I demand a patch!]), and Springer and Téo went back-to-back in the three-run sixth that pulled the Blue Jays to within one, but that was as close as they'd get. A little disappointing, this series, aside from the rainout.

An off-day today, then onto the Mets! And then more Red Sox . . .

KS

2021 Game Ninety-One: Red Sox 13, Blue Jays 4

 

Oh no

Xander Bogaerts was the first batter we saw when we turned the game on, and though he bats third, the score was already 2-0, which seemed pretty bad, but it sure got worse: after Boegaerts grounded out to Bo Bichette, it went walk, double, walk, grand slam, pitching change, so Ross Stripling's line on the day ended up at six runs on four hits and two walks in one-third of an inning. Anthony Kay didn't make out a whole lot better, giving up another five runs in less than two innings of work, but it didn't matter too much at that point anyway. I guess it's good that the back end of the bullpen pitched okay, and that Cavan Biggio homered? Not a whole lot to like in this one, but this is more or less what the Blue Jays did to the Rangers over the weekend, so I suppose it's only fair.

KS 

2021 Games Eighty-Nine and Ninety: Blue Jays 5, Rangers 0 (F/7), Blue Jays 10, Rangers 0 (F/7) (Doubleheader!)

 

Loving: the new look!

One could reasonably refer to the second half of today's doubleheader -- in which Steven Matz pitched admirably whilst four Blue Jays (Vladdy, Springer [back to back!], Grichuk, and Gurreil [grand slam!]) hit two-out homers -- as "a laugher," but by the time Mike Foltynewicz was pulled in the second inning having already allowed eight runs, I mostly felt sad about it. Baseball, in situations like this, is just brutal. The first game of the day, although won by a much slimmer margin, was uncomplicated by such concerns, and was about as much fun as I have had watching this truly remarkably fun team so far this season. To begin, Hyun-Jin Ryu seems to have taken the All-Star break as beard-starting opportunity, and the early returns are, I think, promising! I hope he sticks with it. He pitched about as well today as he has since he joined the team, what with the four hits throughout the seven innings that make up a complete game on days like this (at least for the rest of this year -- sounds like this doubleheader format will be done away with? I have honestly enjoyed it). When George Springer uncharacteristically misplayed a low-key tricky hop into a two-base error tacked onto a single with nobody out, Ryu just pitched his way out of it like it wasn't even remotely concerning, almost as though it wasn't even his affair, though of course it very much was. I've said before that Ryu is probably the most fun pitcher to watch in Blue Jays history for me, but I will add to that that I have come to feel that he may be, in his own way, maybe the most unostentatiously confident? Like not confident in a prickly, Dave Steib kind of way, or even in a visible-strain-of-focus Roy Halladay way, but confident with a genuine kind of ease, one that projects the inevitability of his own success. Maybe he's a total wreck inside, who knows, but the way it looks whenever things go poorly (which in fairness is not that often), he seems as legitimately easy about it as anybody I can think of, as though whatever just happened is probably not going to end up being a big deal because of what he is about to do next. It's worth seeing! 

Also of note today: Vladdy's defense, scooping a Bo Bichette throw out of the dirt, and later making the tag on a play where Santiago Espinal's throw pulled him off the bag towards home plate. Vladdy, as everyone who watches him play remarks, has an awful lot of fun playing baseball (it would be sad if he couldn't, given what he can do), but the part of his game that he looks proudest of are those scoops and tough plays at first, no doubt because they have been hard won, but also, I think, because it is a means of helping out his pals. 

Hey I just checked, and with these two wins and Oakland's loss, the Blue Jays are now only two-and-a-half out of the Wild Card. With seven games against Boston in the next ten, this will probably be their last chance to stay within sight of first place in the AL East, but they'd probably need to win five out of those seven to do it. This seems like a very tall task, but who can say? We just outscored Texas 25-2, so how hard can it be? Probably very! But things are looking up.

KS 

2021 Game Eighty-Eight: Blue Jays 10, Rangers 2

 

Is he shooshing the chants of M.V.P.?
I ask because those have really picked up. 

"All-Star Game M.V.P. Vladimir Guerrero Jr." was quite a thing to see, wasn't it? And the way Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernandez, and Marcus Semien delighted in it all with him was no less lovely to behold than the ludicrous arc traced by the 468-foot home run that secured that pretty neat award for our Vladdy (itself quite lovely). I say "our" Vladdy, but truly he has been embraced as the large adult son of all of all baseball, hasn't he? Like, there is just no question anymore. My only regret regarding anything to do with any of this is that I sent my daughter off to bed probably fifteen minutes before Vladdy's home run, and even though I showed her a clip of it as soon as she got up the next morning, and she too delighted in it, I still felt "rather the heel." But the All-Star Game starts pretty late! It's a tough call! 

Friday night, having seen how much everybody likes it when he smokes great big home runs, Vladdy elected to hit two more to open the second half, this time against the Rangers rather than the NL All-Stars. Robbie Ray allowed just four hits and pitched well into the seventh, and you know who is kind of on a tear lately? Bo Bichette! It sounds weird to say about All-Star Bo Bichette, second only to Xander Boegarts among AL shortstops, but he hasn't really gone a hot streak yet this year, by his standards -- or he hadn't until the last little bit, because it's happening now, and it's great.

KS 

2021 Game Eighty-Seven: Blue Jays 3, Rays 1

 

Not pictures, but extremely present: all of the grunting

As we tuned in on a lovely Sunday afternoon after having played a good deal of catch in the yard and also having just tasted the summer's first cherries from our own little tree (quite a day!), the hope here was to avoid the series sweep (bearing firmly in mind once more that all such series tallies, as noted in our previous entry, are fake [though emotionally real {and what else do we have but our feelings}]). Little did we expect that Robbie Ray would make a plausible run at a no-hitter! The only Ray to reach base at all through six was Yandy Díaz, who walked in the first, and then it was Yandy Díaz again with one out in the seventh who doubled off the tippy top of the wall/a grasping fan's grabbing hands (they grab all they can). Curse you, Yandy Díaz! But not really: Yandy Díaz is a likable player; I have no problem with Yandy Díaz. I have never attended a no-hitter, nor even watched one from start to finish on tv, but my thoughts very much turned to this game right here from the the 2003 season (the season I attended in full): a ten-inning, complete game shutout in which Roy Halladay lost a no hitter against the Tigers with two outs in the eighth on a Kevin Witt drive that Vernon Wells couldn't get to. I have a vivid memory of Vernon trying to run that down, and yet I could never have told you that it was Bobby Kielty (pinch hitting for Reed Johnson) who knocked in Eric Hinske for the winning run in the bottom of the tenth off of Fernando Rodney, nor could I have told you that Nate Cornejo actually through nine shut-out innings for his part as well. Both starting pitchers going nine innings was of course remarkable on the day it happened, but it seems all the more wild today, doesn't it? Much has changed! And yet in fairness it has been literally eighteen years, which is more than enough time for much to change.

All-Star Break!

KS   

2021 Game Eighty-Six: Rays 5, Blue Jays 2

 

Brett Phillips is still having a high old time!

Four home runs in a 5-2 game seems like a lot. That two of them (that's fully half!) came off the bat of Brandon Lowe was not great news for Ross Stripling, who, much like Alek Manoah in the series opener, went only 3 2/3 innings, which is quite poor unless you are employing the relatively novel pitching concept of "the opener" (this was not the case). The Blue Jays bullpen was fine, but for the second day in a row, nobody was really hitting (though Marcus Semien's twenty-second home run of the season must surely be acknowledged). I heard a few innings of this one on the radio, but the early innings I took in solely through play-by-play data on the MLB application "for phones," and I was again struck by the softening effect (and perhaps affect) experiencing a game through play-by-play data offers: were I to have experienced the visual or even auditory fact Vladimir Guerrero picked off of first, I am pretty sure I would have minded it much more than simply seeing that information pop up in text, which really just had me like, "he's irrepressible!" 

A drag to lose the last series before the All-Star Break but series, though a natural way of organizing one's thoughts and experiences throughout a long season, are totally fake, and have no bearing on anything -- except, of course, on one's {baseball} feelings.

KS 

2021 Game Eighty-Five: Rays 7, Blue Jays 1

 

Brett Phillips is a character!

Even though the Blue Jays were not able to bring in any of the several runners they had on base in the early innings, there was nevertheless optimism amongst those of us gathered on the couch based on the sheer number of pitches Shane McClanahan was throwing. Soon we will be into the bullpen! And yet it was young Alek Manoah who did not even make it out of the fourth, having struck out nine but on like a million pitches. Only five Toronto hits on the night, and so whether it was four runs or fourteen runs from the Blue Jays bullpen, it doesn't matter. An inauspicious series opener! But we are used to those in Tampa; it's okay. 

KS

2021 Game Eighty-Four: Blue Jays 10, Orioles 2

 

The tendermost baseball embrace I have ever seen

There was something for everyone to enjoy on this sweltering night in Baltimore: Hyun-Jin Ryu struck out seven over five truly soaked innings of one-run ball; Teoscar Hernández nailed Austin Wynns with a great throw to the plate and a fine swipe tag from Danny Jansen through fogged-up glasses (it was, I am told, so humid); and the Blue Jays scored runs both walloped (a home run by Bo Bichette, further doubles from the resurgent [or maybe just surgent?] Cavan Biggio) and, to the everlasting satisfaction of Pat Tabler, manufactured (a hustle-double from Téo, a grounder to the right side from Randal Grichuk to move him to third, a sac fly from Cavan Biggio that was just deep enough for the fleet Hernández). Throughout all of these happy happenings, the dugout looked like just the loveliest place to be: all the usual merrymakers made merry, and young Alek Manoah seemed to have a million stories to tell the recently arrived Trevor Richards. "The camaraderie on this team," the great Jesse Barfield wrote whilst posting the picture of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. giving Bo Bichette (himself a hugger) a truly wonderful hug, "reminds me of us on our 85 team!" Between all this, and with momentum building, one is led to believe, for a return to Toronto perhaps as early as the end of July, what a joyful night. Three games back of the Wild Card!   

KS

2021 Game Eighty-Three: Orioles 7, Blue Jays 5

 

lol yeah me too, guys; me too

You might well see Orioles 7, Blue Jays 5 and think "I guess they lost a tight one" but they sure didn't! After Semien walked, Bo singled, and Vladdy knocked him in with a sac fly in the first, the Blue Jays went down 4-1 not so long thereafter as Steven Matz didn't really have it, and then 7-1 as Thornton, in relief, turned out to have even less of it. Am I pleased that Grichuk later homered? And Vladdy, too? Of course! But this one was kind of a drag, except for how it was in Camden Yards, and every time the ball was hit to right field we were like, "ooh, warehouse!" Oriole Park has been around for very nearly thirty years now, and it is still a genuine delight to see every time. Hyun-Jin Ryu goes tonight, and that might be a delight too, maybe?

KS

2021 Game Eighty-Two: Rays 5, Blue Jays 1

 

easy . . . easy . . .

I am not going to pretend that we did not mind Rafael Dolis turning a 2-1 game into a 5-1 game in the top of the ninth with a truly painful combination of unusually poor control plus getting smoked -- because it was the only part of the game we actually watched (rather than checking in on play-by-play data about), and we did mind it; in fact very much so -- but it didn't really matter, did it? If the Blue Jays' big bats (and they are self-evidently and for sure big bats; I am not speaking ironically) can only come up with a single run, there's not a whole lot of good that can happen, regardless of how well Robbie Ray does or does not pitch (in this instance, extreme "does": two runs on five hits over seven? yes please!). Again, we did not see much of this game at all through any medium other than play-by-play-on-one's-phone-whilst-Sunday-afternoon-fun-unfolded, so I have no real feel for the game other than that I bet it was a drag when Teoscar Hernandez got caught stealing, and probably even less fun when Bo Bichette got picked off, but what can you do; those guys are great. Oh hey further to that: after the game, Bo Bichette was named as an All-Star Game reserve, and so will play his first such game (of what presumes will be several) at the ballpark in Colorado where his father played for what felt like forever but which may have not actually been quite as long as that (I will check: okay it looks like it was seven seaons, which is pretty substantial). Anyway, while it disappointing not to have managed the sweep, taking two of three from the Rays will never not be a good weekend, and so I am at peace. An off day, and then on to Baltimore, where it would sure be swell to win another two out of three, and then Tampa to wrap things up for the first half (in the pre-All-Star-break sense). Four games out of the Wild Card would not be a bad way to head into the second half at all, but wouldn't it be nice to be even just like a little closer than that? I wonder if we could maybe do that. 

KS

2021 Game Eighty-One: Blue Jays 6, Rays 3

 

Foregrounding: sure can be weird

A great deal to admire in this one, though definitely nothing more than the five-run sixth that broke open a one-one game, because that was nice. Bo Bichette flied out to open the inning, but then Vladdy got things going with just a scorcher of a double off the wall (I think they said it came off the bat at 117MPH?). George Springer walked, Teoscar Hernandez (who runs well!) singled on a little grounder to third to load the bases, and Vladdy hustled home to score on another such grounder, a little dribbler off the bat of Lourdes Gurriel Jr. that Joey Wendle had time on but, in my view, was intimidated by Vladdy's wheels (for Joey Wendle is only human), and made a rushed through. Cavan Biggio, who continues to look really good since coming back from the neck injury, singled in a pair, Gurriel got caught stealing third (come on, man), and Santiago Espinal hit the first home run of his career! It took him like seventy-some games! He was super excited, and "the boys" no less so for him. Jordan Romano did not look so hot in the ninth, but Stripling, the side-arming Cimber (welcome, side-arming Cimber), and Mayza had left everything in good enough shape that it didn't really matter. A great win! And so the Blue Jays reach the halfway-point of the 162-game schedule with a record of 43-38. While the impending All-Star Break provides us a natural pause within which we may consider what has been more fulsomely (in every sense), for now I will note only that although an admirable final record of 86-76 would almost certainly leave the Blue Jays just outside of a postseason spot, it would match precisely the record of the 2003 Blue Jays, the non-championship Blue Jays of whom I remain most fond ever, and whose eighty-one-game home-season I may well have attended in its entirety on the back of the $81-Toronto Star Season Pass; this may have gone down; this may still, in some sense, be going down.

This Rays series, already a huge success regardless of Sunday's outcome, could really be something if the Blue Jays can pull off the sweep. Robbie Ray on the mound! 

KS

2021 Game Eighty: Blue Jays 11, Rays 1

Questionable hats this holiday weekend but unimpeachable socks

This one was, quite frankly, a delight: a young-career-best start from Alek Manoah (three hits and a walk with ten strikeouts over seven innings! a no-hitter through five!), Vladdy's twenty-seventh home run of the season (he is himself, I need not remind you, a number twenty-seven also), and a true "Springer Dinger" to get it all started (Dan Shulman insists he will not utter those words but I think he will yield to them in time). Everybody in the lineup had at least a hit, except for Randal Grichuk, who nevertheless got on and came around to score, so he got to have fun too. As did we all! With six of these last nine games before the All-Star Break coming against the Rays, who remain the team to beat, I mean, like, it's nice to beat them.

KS

2021 Game Seventy-Nine: Mariners 7, Blue Jays 2

 

Shed Long Jr: really cool?

Well, Hyun-Jin Ryu didn't have it, nor, later, did Tyler Chatwood, although only one of these two Blue Jays pitchers made kind of a fuss about it when they were pulled (guess which one!). 菊池 雄星 (Kikuchi Yūsei) was largely dealing -- this is to say, he largely dealt -- and so aside from a nice three-for-four-with-a-homer for Marcus Semien, and a couple of hits from both Bo Bichette and Téo, that's about all there was to this one. However! Later in the day we learned that the Blue Jays will have three -- three! -- starters in the All-Star Game this year: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Marcus Semien, and Teoscar Hernandez. No surprise for Vladdy (the youngest player ever to lead in overall voting, I have read) and Semien (an easy call), but a very pleasant surprise indeed in Hernandez! Nice! Three All-Star starters is pretty wild, when you think about it (it is nearly a third of them). The last time the Blue Jays had three starters in the All-Star game, they actually had four: Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar, John Olerud, and Paul Molitor (this was, as you can see, some time ago). I wonder if this works against Bo Bichette getting named to the team? Like, it may be thought that the Blue Jays quite rightly have enough guys going? That would be understandable yet unfortunate.

To more immediate concerns, though: here come the Rays for three, and the Blue Jays trail them by five games for the Wild Card. A good weekend would be good! A bad weekend would be bad! This is I suppose true of all weekends, and for all of us, and yet this particular instance feels more pressing than most. But we'll see, I guess.

KS  

2021 Game Seventy-Eight: Mariners 9, Blue Jays 7

 

oh no

It was for sure a drag that Steven Matz was a little off in his return to the rotation, and that after the Blue Jays managed to dig themselves out from underneath of all that, Patrick Murphy gave up a three-run home run in the top of the tenth. But the drag that was such a drag that it occluded all other drags on this night is that, rather than the pretty-much-peerless excellence of a Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez broadcast, or the good-natured easy vibes of a Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler one, this game was the MLB YouTube Game of the Week, or something, so we were visiting by the absolutely nonstop nattering of four people for whom I did not care on a broadcast designed, I think, for smarty-pantses? Posting run expectancy tables and speaking in darkly sarcastic tones about singles? What? Why? For who(m)? I am as FanGraphsed-up as the next person, I have been Bill-Jamesed for decades, and this was so absurdly heavy-handed that it kind of made me hate analytics for a little bit there, so what are we trying to achieve here? It was super, super annoying. And so incessant, like you couldn't even really hear the game for all their chattering about stuff they seem to have half-understood from the pages of Baseball Prospectus. As a national game, it also had that bothersome aspect about it wherein none of the people talking knew anywhere near as much about the teams they were calling than even the worst local broadcaster would, and so, much like a World Series broadcast on Fox, the commentators end up talking about everybody's contracts, which, during the actual game, is the lowest possible level of discourse. We muted it and had a pleasant enough time after doing so but golly. Where is Hazel Mae to tell me about the latest roster moves? What happened to Arash Madani and glacial pace that you kind of can't believe even as its happening? Guys, come back! 

KS