2021 Game One-Thirty-Four: Blue Jays 10, Athletics 8

 

not a near-term problem, obviously, but I am
genuinely going to miss the SkyDome when it's gone

This was a radio game for us today, and so Ben Wagner was our able guide to José Orlando Berríos' fine six-and-two-thirds, and to the many Blue Jays home runs that accompanied those same innings: Gurriel's well-timed solo blast just as some of us were returning home from a bike ride; Jansen's an inning later (to go along with his two doubles on the day!), Breyvic Valera's first on the year; and Téo's twenty-fourth. Wagner also saw us through Soria's four-runs-and-yet-nary-an-out-to-be-seen eighth, and Romano's second straight iffy ninth, en route to a 10-8 Blue Jays win that felt like two totally different games: a first half in which the boys bopped joyfully, and a second in which the bullpen made everybody awfully edgy. Hey but that's the game! The relief in Wagner's voice was palpable though when Gurriel ran down a fly ball for the second out of the ninth, as Wagner noted that it was about as clean a route as we have seen Lourdes (who we all love! it's not that!) take to a fly ball in quite some time (my man is an adventure out there). 

Looks like we've won the series! Of course there is really no such thing as doing that; like it is a meaningless thing to do; there really are not series that are there to be won or lost; this is simply how baseball schedules are organized due to the realities of travel in a game where you play nearly daily. But it's still good to do! And who wouldst thou rather have on the bump as we look for the sweep than Robbie Ray? This season, I would argue, literally no one in the league, actually (and who saw that coming? not me!). Hey also, here's something I have resolved, kind of: I am not really going to "scoreboard watch," or I should say I am going to try not to scoreboard watch, or that I am at least going to try to try not to scoreboard watch. And my reason is simply this: until the Blue Jays are mathematically eliminated (which, barring calamity, should be a good ways off yet [if at all, right, Blue Jays fans?], the task does not change: they need to win most of their games. If they get up to ninety or so, that ought to do it, almost-regardless (though obviously not regardless-regardless) of how any of the teams ahead of them play. And if they win ninety, and it isn't enough to get them in, well what can you do? You build teams with the hopes that they'll win ninety; nobody builds hundred-win teams (those just happen [they rule]). So I'm not even going to worry about it, I am telling myself, at least this evening. Looking ahead at the schedule and freaking out a little about how many games we still have against the Yankees is not the same thing as scoreboard watching, by the way; it is loosely related, but crucially different. In ways.

KS