2021 Game One-Forty-Three: Blue Jays 22, Orioles 7

 

guys I think Vladdy Jr might be special

Amongst the wilder elements of the Blue Jays 22-7 win over the Orioles yesterday is that the game wasn't even as close as that score suggests, as the Orioles scored four of their runs after the game was already very much a wrap. It was 16-4 after three! The Blue Jays had already scored six runs before they sent fourteen batters to the plate to score their ten in the third, and it didn't take long for those of us on the couch to start feeling, alongside our joy, a fair measure of pity for these poor benighted Orioles, who were hopelessly and helplessly stuck in the most miserable inning you could have, in pretty much the most miserable game you could have, in one of the more miserable seasons you're ever going to have, too (and my understanding is that there does not look to be a whole lot of help coming for the great Cedric Mullins in the next couple of years, either). We had put the game on a little late (had to toss the ball around in the yard a little before the game in case either of us were called on to pitch -- you never know) and felt a little silly that in so doing we had missed not just a five-run first (you only get so many!), but Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s Blue-Jays-best fourth grand slam of the season. How fortuitous, then, that in addition to just everything, we also got to see home runs from Jake Lamb, Téoscar Hernandez, and, most weightily, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., whose 44th home run matched the highest-single season total of his father, who I invite you join me in calling "Dadimir Guerrero" if not exclusively, then with fond frequency. 

An outrageously, almost egregiously triumphant day at Camden Yards, and once that was over, literally everybody else with any bearing whatsoever on the Blue Jays' playoff hopes lost: Boston, New York, Oakland, Seattle, and even Tampa Bay. Where does this leave us? Well, for the moment, at least, tied with Boston for the first Wild Card spot (and also, I suppose, tied for the second one as well), with the Yankees a game behind, and both Oakland and Seattle two further games behind New York. Things immediately get much, much tougher, as we head to Tampa Bay for three starting tonight, and then after a weekend in Minnesota, three more against the Rays in Toronto next week. Although the prudent course would be to temper one's expectations for a moment real quick, it is worth noting, I think, that if the Blue Jays sweep their remaining games in Tampa, they would be a mere three games out of the AL East lead. A typo a moment ago had that last sentence read "it is worth nothing," which might be more or less the size of it, and yet. And yet.

KS