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| A lively triptych |
Bo Bichette's first home run against the Yankees Wednesday night gave him the single-season record for Blue Jays shortstops (over Tony Batista, you'd think), which is for sure neat, but it was his second -- to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning of what was both mathematically and in terms of a vibe pretty much (if not quite) an elimination game -- that made him an even cooler guy still. What a game for Bo! Three for four with two homers and a double? And some nifty play in the field? My goodness! After the game, Bo was asked about his approach to the (as-it-turns-out-crucial) eighth-inning at bat, and although one is accustomed to hearing answers to such questions fall along the lines of like "well, I was just trying to make solid contact, put the ball in play, etc" Bo chose another route, and was like yeah I was totally trying to hit a home run so I am super glad it worked out like that. José Berríos, you may well recall, was perfect through four innings before getting touched up for a pair in the fifth and one more in the sixth; Tim Mayza had some real tough luck giving up two in the seventh on a hit-by-pitch that was barely off the plate, some soft-contact, and a two-out, two-on, two-run single by Kyle Higashioka, of all people, on just the softest little liner a few steps too far for Bichette. The run that probably sticks in the Yankees craw way harder than either Bo Bichette home run, or Marcus Semien's forty-fourth of the year (hey that's an all-time AL/NL record for second baseman, no big deal), came on Vladdy's double passed a drawn-in infield (man I would not want to play "in" at third against Vladdy, even if he has been struggling of late) to score George Springer's ridiculous gift double that had dropped in between the left-fielder and shortstop who just looked at each as the ball was like *boop* betwixt them. Adam Cimber and Jordon Romano took us the rest of the way, and the SkyDome (or Rogers Centre; it is much the same) was about as loud as it can be with thirty-thousand people in it.
What a treat this all was. I have said it a number of times already this season, I know, but with only four game left to play it is probably as safe as it has ever been to say that this was maybe the game of the season, and Bo Bichette's home run the moment? The first series back in Toronto was incredible, the three-game sweep of Oakland to move ahead of them was even better, and the four-games straight in Yankee Stadium set the Blue Jays up for the possibility of games as weighty as those we've seen this week; there has certainly been no shortage of wonderful games (and moments therein!), and that's just in the last little while. So maybe this was it? The last game where we'll feel like this before it's over? And yet it's Robbie Ray on the hill tonight, in his last start of the year, probably just one good start (not even one great start [though, I mean, let's do it]) from the AL Cy Young award, in a game that could leave us just one back of the Yankees for one of the two Wild Card spots with three to go (how Boston's account will stand, who knows, save heaven? [Hamlet reference]). Why wouldn't Robbie Ray strike out like ten guys tonight? What evidence is there that this is anything other than the likeliest outcome? Let's give it a try, at least, and then we'll figure the rest of it out this weekend.
KS
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