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