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| He's slinging, it's true |
"Stripling Slings, Makes Case For Starting Slot" reads the headline to Keegan Matheson's MLB.com game story, as though to openly antagonize me after my previous assertion that it should be Steven Matz who takes the final spot in the rotation, sending Stripling to the pen. But fair enough! Without checking, I am just going to go ahead and suggest that that three hits and a walk over six scoreless innings is the best we have seen Ross Stripling, and I will note also that three innings from Richards, Mayza, and a fired-up Adam Cimber (I love the enthusiasm! let's go!) in which all that was allowed betwixt them was a lone walk, is also just super. The bats were uncharacteristically quiet, except for how Bo Bichette parked a two-run shot into the second deck just under where it says "Tony Fernandez" (number one in our programs, number one in our hearts), and then singled in Marcus Semien his next time up. Semien had quite an at bat, and lanky young righty Triston McKenzie really thought he had him with a really close pitch just before the double. McKenzie, who I have learned is good friends with Bo Bichette from Florida, is twenty-four but looks even younger than that, in an acutely heart-rending way. I have also just now learned that he is 6'5" and only 165lbs, furthering the rending of the heart. I wish him well! He pitched a really good game: three runs on five hits and no walks against the team with the highest OPS in either league (and also the youngest team, joining the 1970 Reds and 1990 Blue Jays in combining those two nice things)? Good for young Triston! I wish him a long and fruitful career, if that is what would please him.
And so the Blue Jays are six-and-one on this, their first proper homestand of the season, with Boston coming in for four (double-header Saturday!). Boston has hit a rough patch lately, and it is possible we are playing them at the right time: "If the Red Sox play like this against the Blue Jays," Matthew Kory (formerly of FanGraphs, amongst other places) wrote yesterday, "they're going to get swept and it's going to be by absolutely brutal scores." Hey maybe so! It has definitely been a while since I have looked at how our starters line up for a four game series -- Manoah, Ray, Berrier, Ryu -- and felt any better about it; that's for sure. My scoreboard-watching remains intense, and my standings-watch has shifted from mere interest in how far the Blue Jays trail the final Wild Card spot (2.5 games at present) to a more-than-passing-glance at not only the first Wild Card (5 games), and even -- dare I even utter the words? -- the AL East (6.5). If we make up a game a week for the rest of the season we'll win it going away! That doesn't even sound that hard!
KS
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