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| Welcome aboard, José Berríos |
I was very pleased to welcome young José Berríos, two-time All-Star who has yet to miss a scheduled start in his MLB career, at the trade-deadline cost of two well-regarded prospects in Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson, in no small part because prospects, while certainly vital and I get it, are nevertheless also kind of a fake idea, if you see what I'm saying (it is perfectly, perfectly reasonable for you to not -- generally, of course, but in this particular instance especially). But I must admit that I was not familiar with his work in any way that I could distinctly remember. And so imagine my delight today, to see him work his way out of some tricky spots with his various curveballs that just disappear, man, they just "fall off the table" as Joe Morgan famously explained (about how they can do that sometimes). It was great! His cutter got him into a few of those sticky situations, as it ran in on dudes to such an extent that it began to run in to dudes, and hit no fewer than three of them. But aside from that, no runs five hits and a walk in six complete! I will absolutely take it! Trevor Richards was great in relief, and Tim Mayza was too aside from an Oliveres rocket (a largely insignificant rocket, coming when it did, and yet very much one all the same) with two outs in the ninth for the Royals lone run on the day (I respect the Kansas City Royals, and feel for them when they are having off years). As to the bats: we saw home runs (and indeed the silly home run jacket [which I support; it seems fun]) from Marcus Semien, which is never unexpected, and young Santiago Espinal, which is always unexpected, by which I mean it has been unexpected both times it has ever happened. What a likeable utility infielder he is! (That is predominant type, now that I think about it, but I really do like Espinal.) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had his first true day off of either this season or last, and he busied himself in any number of delightful ways -- positioning Bo Bichette from the dugout and doing the wave with Alek Manoah were my personal favourites -- before (and after, actually) being taped to the bench by I believe Teoscar Hernandez among others. It was all great fun! As was the whole weekend: it would have been wonderful to have the Blue Jays properly back in Toronto however the games went, I bet, but they really couldn't have gone any better.
The way I'm looking at things now, with our record at 54-48 with sixty games to go, we don't even necessarily need more of these sweeps; we just have to keep on going two-and-one, two-and-one over and over again to go 40-20 the rest of way and win 94 games. And that'd be enough, right? Almost certainly? Probably? Let's try it, at least, and see.
KS
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