2021 Games One-Eleven and One-Twelve: Angels 6, Blue Jays 3 (F/7); Blue Jays 4, Angels 0 (F/7) (Doubleheader!)

 

Let's play two

Sunday afternoon, George Springer hit a three-run eighth-inning home run to bring the Blue Jays all the way back against the Red Sox, and wrap a thoroughly triumphant 9-2 homestand trip with a 9-8 win that felt enormously special. Tuesday afternoon (evening, here!), George Springer was just a guy grounding into double plays throughout a close ballgame until it wasn't super close anymore and there were no more double plays to be grounded into. Baseball is weird! Just ask Vladdy, too, who lost a routine pop-up in the sun while two runs came around to score. Or Breyvic Valera, who probably felt pretty pleased about his little scooch-up in the box as as sinker-baller came to the plate -- like a scooch whilst things were under way, to make contact before the sinker could sink, absolutely delighting Buck Martinez in the process -- only to later turn what looked like a double-play ball at third into two-on, nobody out, both throws coming in just the tiniest bit late. Rough stuff! Steven Matz pitched pretty well, as did the recently recalled Trent Thornton in relief, though Dolis sure didn't (Saucedo did after). I was surprised Montoyo went with Thornton down by one, but he would have gotten out of everything totally clean had Vladdy not lost that one in the sun, and I was surprised when he called in Dolis, too, but I suppose on a doubleheader day, you can't run through your better relievers in a game you're losing, can you? Because you would feel awfully silly if you needed them in the second game should you be ahead in it, right?

And so to game two, where those relievers were extremely needed, because Ross Stripling left with "left abdominal discomfort" (we've all been there) in only the second inning, so we very, very much had use for every good pitch Richards, Cimber, and Romano could muster. And muster they did! The Angels didn't really get much going at all in between Shohei Ohtani's first-inning triple (man that guy can fly) and the seventh-inning rally that brought Ohtani to the plate trailing by four with the bases loaded. Romano striking out Ohtani to end the game actually felt like less of a big deal than Cimber striking out Ohtani on three sliders in his previous at bat, but both were great; don't make me choose. Cimber, who is all arms and legs and a strange angles and a truly lovely light-blue glove, got through two innings on just seventeen pitches, eleven of them strikes. He's been great! A relatively quiet day for Ohtani, who, in addition to the triple, only managed to steal second by a mile in the first game after an intentional walk, and cruise on home on a sharp single to left right after. He also somehow made a totally routine ground ball to third into a bang-bang play at first; in addition to everything else he does (which is, of course, literally everything else), I'm still not sure we talk about his speed enough. He just runs so fast. He pitches Thursday.

Blue Jays two-and-a-half out!

KS