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| the way the crowd started to stand? as they realized Biggio was going to try to make it? all the way from first? I mean, forget about it |
While I definitely could have done without the Orioles' four-run, bat-around eighth out of nowhere (it escalated quickly!), otherwise, what a night: a three-run home run for the weirdly-productive-of-late Danny Jansen, two hits apiece for Santiago Espinal (missed you, Santiago; missed you, bro) and Corey Dickerson, and a huge three-for-four from the returning Cavan Biggio, who darted around the bases all the way from first to score on a George Springer infield single to second. This was an Alfredo Griffinesque feat of baserunning, which is always the most welcome kind (to me [and to Bill James, in The New Bill James Historical Abtract]). Steven Matz's two runs on six hits an a walk in seven complete is such a great final line for a remarkable season for him (they let him wear the home run jacket!). Obviously pitcher wins are not a statistic that we place a whole lot of value in anymore, and rightly so, but "Steven Matz, fourteen-game winner" is nevertheless pretty wild, right? Cimber had as much trouble in relief as I think we've seen from him all year, or rather since we picked him up (he has been so good), but Jordan Romano threw thirty-two pitches in just under two innings of work to close it out not unticklishly but most welcomely. Let us hope, then, that Manoah goes sufficiently deep into this afternoon's game, and the bats bop to such a degree, that we don't need to use the better pieces of the Blue Jays bullpen to handle today's work, and can have everybody ready for multiple innings should Ryu run into trouble early on Sunday (I love watching Hyun-Jin Ryu pitch but one never knows, does one; one never truly knows). Checking in with the (Home Hardware) out-of-town scoreboard (my phone), we see that the Yankees lost, the Mariners lost, and the Red Sox won, so for all of the scenario-strangenesses that abound, the fundamentals (a crutch for the talentless?) of the Blue Jays' situation remain unchanged: win today, and we're still in it tomorrow. It looks like I'll be taking in much of today's game chilling in the shade whilst a roller-skating lesson unfolds, and I would encourage you to seek out listening conditions at least that pleasant, if you are in any kind of position to do so, though I acknowledge that very few are so blessed.
KS
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