2021 Game One-Fifty-Four: Twins 3, Blue Jays 1

 

whatever else is going on, I do enjoy Bo Bichette

Things are really not going well! And yet, you know what, I find myself far more sanguine than I am sanguineous. Berrios pitched well, as did those designated to relieve him (both Richards and Pearson, on whom I should not be so hard). Marcus Semien homered and doubled (my thanks to him for both), but otherwise the bats were silent aside from a Dickerson single and an Espinal double (welcome back, Santiago). This is not because the Blue Jays are bad hitters; in fact they are very good hitters; but they did not hit. What can you do? There are little lineup quirks here and there, but there's no particular order Charlie Montoyo can put the guys in that will make everybody have better plate appearances all of a sudden. There were a lot of frustratingly short at bats last night, but when the Blue Jays are rolling, they are jumping all over the first or second pitch; it's not a good approach when they're putting up a dozen runs but a bad approach when they're having an off night; it's just who these guys are (wild horses out there, man). I left the radio on after the game last night for some Jays Talk (on the Sportsnet Radio Network), and it is worlds better in the post-Wilner, no-calls, texts-only era, but there was so much hand wringing and frustration, which I get, but also, like, what are you going to do? I would argue that the Blue Jays batters want to hit the ball even more than you want them to hit the ball, Evan in Markham, or whoever (no diss to Evans or Markham whatsoever: we all need to be someone; we all need to be somewhere). I am honestly starting to wonder if maybe none of this is bothering me as much as it should because my current Baseball Mogul save is going so well? As Carson Cistulli first articulated, but which I am sure many of us have long felt, simulation baseball is only marginally more fictional than non-simulation baseball, that is to say, than the baseball that holds (perhaps an undue?) place of privilege in the primary world of our experience. Let us reflect upon and be grateful for the consolations afforded us by the simulacrum/let's go Blue Jays.

KS