2022 Game One-Hundred-Sixty-Four: Mariners 10, Blue Jays 9

 

oh no

The last time a seven-run lead fell apart in a jam-packed SkyDome, before God and Geddy Lee, it was Opening Day, wasn't it? When the Blue Jays bats bailed José Berríos out of an improbably and distressingly poor start? Turnabout is fair play, as they say, and yet it is simultaneously a huge drag (that part is implied, possibly). I contend that Saturday's game offered us in microcosm the complete experience of watching any and every postseason run that ends in anything less than the World Series championship itself, regardless of how long it lasts and how close it all comes: the initial tension that so far surpasses what we're used to in baseball that it barely feels like baseball anymore (watching playoff baseball, a Phillies observer noted, is like watching a loved one try to defuse a bomb), followed by the "surprised by joy" period in which you can't believe this is actually working out, and then the final fairly crushing realization that no, it's totally isn't, is it (no [it is not]). This can take weeks, but, saving us all a lot of time, this took just the one day. It is like Mrs. Dalloway! I think Virginia Woolf is good but I don't think I have read that one! And yet I am sure of it. Kevin Gausman's splitter was splitting, Téo hit two home runs that had me projecting a future, decades hence, in which we all referred to this as The Téo Game (I got a little ahead of myself arguably), and then the first of the Mariners two four-run innings got extremely in the way. If nothing else, this game confirmed that I have been correct to extremely uneasy around Carlos Santana all these many years: he really got ahold of that one off Tim Mayza, didn't he? Yimi Garcia's two outs in the seventh settled me right back down, and of all the various decisions that have been second-guessed in the days since, the only move that really struck me at the time was John Schneider sending Anthony Bass out to start the next inning, rather than let Yimi keep on rolling, but I quickly brushed those thoughts aside in the moment, remembering first that I have a disproportionate level of faith in the abilities of Yimi Garcia, and that Anthony Bass has been very good since coming over from the Marlins. But Bass couldn't get anybody out, like literally anybody, and from there, we were really in it. And yet had that little two-out bloop bases-clearing double not landed just between Bo Bichette and George Springer as they barreled towards each other, we'd have been out of it, too. You can't really blame Jordan Romano, who got a soft pop-up; you can't really blame George Springer, as, with two outs and everybody running on contact, those three runs were going to score even if he holds back and plays it on a hop rather than laying out for it; and you can't really blame Bo (at least I do not) for trying to make a play on a ludicrously well-placed pop-up until the moment he is called off by Springer, which he did not appear to be (could he have heard it even if he had been?). Bo is taking it on the chin in a lot of the commentary on this game, but to me, that ball was dropping either way, and imagine what they would have to say about it if it did so right after he peeled off (had he peeled, I mean)? That ball was set down in precisely the spot where it landed by either a vengeful god or the immutable laws of the universe but either way it was dropping (how many times were the rueful words "that's down for a hit" uttered in my home on this day? some say we are uttering still). And so why wasn't Jackie Bradley Jr., the far better fielder, in the game for Springer at that late stage, some have asked, for the obviously ailing Springer (three strikeouts, and not quite able to snag a tough ball at the wall earlier on)? This is probably a reasonable question, but I think the long and the short of it all -- of all of it! at least for me! -- is that in Game One, the bullpen was good but the boys did not bop, and in Game Two, the boys bopped as noisily as one could ever hope, but the bullpen, which had been good throughout the second half of the season (when it had attained its final form), and had helped the Blue Jays win the second-most one-run games in MLB (second only to the Dodgers), just couldn't get anybody out. To me, it's not a question of managerial strategy: John Schneider went to a number of relief pitchers who have pitched well, and they did not pitch well.

The long faces (and e-faces, of which I mostly speak right now) about this game are all entirely understandable, and yet I do not at all share the (to me) hyperbolic view that this is the worst loss in Blue Jays history. I feel that this view is ahistorical and lacks a sense of proportion (there, I said it). This was the second game of a three-game series in which we were down one game to none; this was not the third straight loss in the 1985 ALCS we'd been leading 3-1; this is not the seventh straight loss to end the 1987 season (Tony Fernandez, his wrist fractured) and cost us the AL East; this is not even the 1991 ALCS that we dropped 4-1 to a Minnesota Twins team that we had precious little business losing to; this isn't 2015, when the Blue Jays really did seem to be the best team in either league at the end of the season, only to get Kansas City'd in the ALCS again (happens every thirty years, like clockwork; I am already a little sad about 2045). Take a look around the rest of this Wild Card weekend and we will find a Mets team significantly better than this year's Blue Jays, who just lost to a Padres team that is no better than the Mariners, and got one-hit on the way out the door (Buck Showalter even had the umpires feel Joe Musgrave's super wet but otherwise faultless ears; complete Mets humiliation); a Cardinals team that allowed the Phillies a six-run top-of-the-ninth to lose Game One and then went quietly in Game Two to end the careers of both Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina; and a Rays team that, though the sixth seed, everyone was still totally worried about, eliminated in the fifteenth inning on a home run by Oscar Gonzalez, of all people. That's three home teams -- which is to say, higher seeds -- out of four that are gone, and the only home team -- that is to say, higher seed -- that won is probably the most lightly-regarded of any of the twelve teams that made this new postseason (prove us wrong, Guardians! get those Yankees, you guys! for real please do!). "My shit doesn't work in the playoffs," Billy Beane famously told us, and as these series get shorter (and yet longer than a single-game play-in, obviously [which may be better emotionally or worse, I can't even say yet]) we would be mistaken to take them any more seriously or to hold them to be any more revealing than we would a three-game series at pretty much any other time of year, despite the fact that we have ordered take-out for these ones, and have assembled special snacks for them. 

In the final analysis, I have had a super fun summer of Blue Jays baseball, and hope that you have as well. I would argue, in all seriousness, that there is a very real chance that we will get 'em next year, should we be spared. Let us reconvene then! And see! 

KS 

2022 Game One-Hundred-Sixty-Three: Mariners 4, Blue Jays 0

 

that one ran in a little extra

Alek Manoah's shaky three-run first inning before he settled in reasonably well the rest of the way wouldn't have been an insurmountable problem, except for how Luis Castillo pitched a masterpiece: Castillo's 100MPH sinker was hitting corners all evening like it was no big deal (to me? it is), and as if that weren't enough, that same pitch had as much as six inches of "run" inside to right-handed batters, which led to some swings that looked uncompetitive (I am sure everybody meant to compete) from really, really good hitters (our boys!). It felt like as strong a pitching performance as the Blue Jays have seen all year, which seemed to be confirmed by this note from Seattle reporter Aaron Goldsmith: "Castillo and Munoz [who relieved Castillo] threw a combined 71 fastballs. 10 were 100+ mph. 29 were 99+ mph. 96.2 was the SLOWEST," and that slowest fastball, Goldsmith notes, was Castillo's one-hundred-and-first pitch. So while I am sure Alek Manoah did not leave the game feeling great about his performance, despite a generous and kind ovation from the largely quieted SkyDome crowd, it wouldn't have mattered if he'd give up one run, or a dozen: Luis Castillo pitched very nearly unhittably, our only real chances coming on two separate "two-on, two-out" at-bats, one for Vladdy, and one for Bo. Because we went down almost immediately, and things stayed that way for three hours, this game felt like a bit of a slog, aside from the exquisite company and exquisite sushi (by Shige, of course). I feel pretty good about this next one though! Kevin Gausman! Dimitri's Pizza! We can do this!   

KS

2022 Games One-Hundred-Sixty-One and One-Hundred-Sixty-Two: Orioles 5, Blue Jays 4 (Game One), Blue Jays 5, Orioles 1

 

still about as good as it gets

The last day of the season is always a little sad, even when it isn't, isn't it: after splitting the Wednesday doubleheader, the Orioles finished the year with a perfectly respectable eighty-three wins to turn the page on probably the lowliest chapter (if not quite the lowliest, I'm sure it'll do, as regards lowliness) in franchise history; there is no way to look at this season as anything but a success for them, with good young players to build around and be fond of for years to come. So why did I feel as I felt when the sparse crowd (17,248 is what they wrote) stood and applauded after the final out, and the Orioles players and coaches came out of the dugout to waive their caps in acknowledgment and appreciation? I don't even like the Orioles! I like the Blue Jays! And their season isn't even over! That doom abides! But I have been a part of that crowd, dear friends; I have stood in sparse crowds with genuine thanks for a season of mediocre baseball that was drawing to its close (inevitably; irrevocably); I have done this with deep feeling and with all of my sincerity; and I have done it more than once. When it was happening yesterday, I was thinking Roger Angell thoughts, and just now I am thinking about how this is the first baseball season Roger Angell didn't get to see the end of in a really, really long time. It was a good one, and I think he would have found things to like in it.

Yesterday, running out the spring training lineup, more or less, the Blue Jays got through it all exactly as they needed to, with no regulars dinged up, and every pitcher who wanted or needed an inning or two of work getting in and out with no real trouble. It was a nice day for the rookies, Gabriel Moreno (who will likely be on the playoff roster?) and Otto Lopez (who likely will not? unless Espinal isn't quite ready?), but what I liked most was the deeply weird procession of relievers all day: game one had Richards, Cimber, Garcia, and Romano for an inning each (in that order!) followed by Mitch White for four (blown save and the loss, 1-7 on the season, sent back down to Buffalo, technically, as soon as the game ended [harsh, harsh realm]); game two saw Phelps, Bass, and Mayza each get an inning before both Casey Lawrence and (70s-style bullpen fireman? maybe?) Yusei Kikuchi got a couple each, as did Trent Thornton. Is this Camden Yards, one twitter user wrote, or Sdray Nedmac? (It was me, and I was very proud of it.) 

And so the stage is set for the Wild Card weekend, and I really really like the idea of a bunch of three-game series to open up the playoffs. The three-game series is how we structure so much of the baseball season that it feels like a number that arises organically and should have been the way we've been doing the first round all along maybe? Fundamentally I am not a man of playoff baseball, as we have discussed, and I feel that 162 games is a very good amount, as we have also discussed, but at the same time I do accept that playoffs are going to happen, and once that question is behind us, I really do think the three-game series is a great idea, and I think that I will think that even if the Blue Jays get utterly washed in two which is not even my expectation because I like our guys so much. Five o'clock start for us! We're getting Sushi Shige! Let's go!   

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Sixty: Blue Jays 5, Orioles 1 (F/8)

 

it was such a cold and rainy night
that there are almost no photos from it! for serious!

I feel like so much has happened since last we spoke: everything's settled now! The Blue Jays will host! The Mariners! Major League Baseball has quite cleverly orchestrated things just so as to guarantee 1977 Expansion representation in the ALDS and I personally could not be more pleased about it. This series should be a lot of fun unless it is a source of upset and misery! Could go either way! And what of the win with which the Blue Jays sealed their part of this deal? It didn't look like it was any fun at all to play, what with the persistent rain amid temperatures that led Cedric Mullins to wear something just short of a ski-mask under his batting helmet (and indeed his hat). José Berríos turned in a very fine start, aided pretty hard by a nice Teoscar Hernandez grab in the right field corner that would otherwise have been several runs for sure. At the plate, we had Vladdy, of course, ripping his thirty-second home of the season (I think?) over the newly-Vladdy-resistant left field wall, and Whitt Merrifield just flying around causing all kinds of chaos: bunt single that puts him on second with an errant throw, a dash to third on a ball hit to short, and a scooting home on a ball that couldn't have been ten feet from the catcher. Lots to like! And just as the Blue Jays loaded the bases in the top of eighth, it was deemed enough: rain delay, thirty minute wait, okay everybody go home. And then we clinched! With the Mariners loss to Detroit, so it wasn't a wild on-field sort of thing. But the remaining doubleheader to be played Thursday will be no less gloriously meaningless because of that. Yusei Kikuchi, eighteen innings? Maybe it's what he needs to get sorted out! I kid but I do hope he pitches at least a little. I continue to find him deeply sympathetic. 

KS 

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Nine: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 3

 

Whitt Merrifield sneaking home, sneakily

Teoscar Hernandez only hit one home run Saturday, but don't worry, he hit two Sunday; it's going to be okay. Whitt Merrifield had one, too, giving him four in the last little while, a little while over which he is batting like .421? Given the way his first few weeks in Toronto went, one could argue he was extremely due! But however we may wish to conceptualize his performance, it has, of late, ruled, fundamentally. This was all enormously helpful, because Kevin Gausman got BABIP'd into a pair of runs early, and then left in the fourth with a little cut on his finger (we were assured afterwards that it is just a teensy little cut, and not serious, and certainly not the dreaded blister). This meant the bullpen needed to put together six full innings-worth of outs (that's eighteen! of them!), and Zach Pop really led the charge, fielding his position brilliantly in two innings of work that honestly felt like more? In a good way? Pop ended up with the win, and Romano the save, making this the first MLB game in which Canadians were credited with the win and the save in the same game. Isn't that weird? You'd think somewhere along the line that would have happened, right? And yet here we are.   

Where we are is also here: at ninety wins with three games to play! Ninety-win seasons are rare and precious things and must be recognized as such; they are super hard to do, and we must cherish each one. This is the first time the Blue Jays have won ninety-or-more games in consecutive seasons since doing it three times in a row from 1991 through 1993, and you will you no doubt recall that those seasons were the best (1991 was tough at the end but we did get the All-Star Game). To my delight, the Rays dropped a couple of games in Houston over the weekend (hey: it happens) which removes the dreaded Trop as first-round playoff destination; this is a great relief to me personally. And with Robbie Ray (disappointing year!) getting touched up for three home runs against the lowly Oakland Athletics, the Mariners have slipped a little further behind the Blue Jays, too: with three Blue Jays games remaining, and four Mariners ones, the Blue Jays' "magic number" to secure SkyDomeField-advantage (that's mine, coined just now, but you can use it) is merely two, which is to say, any combination of Blue Jays wins and Seattle losses that totals "merely two" is enough to wrap it up in our favour. Seattle has a doubleheader scheduled for Tuesday, and the Blue Jays might end up doing something very similar, as the weather in Baltimore looks super rainy tonight (and maybe tomorrow! [just showers Wednesday, I think they said]) and they stubbornly refuse to build a roof over Camden Yards. So I guess we'll just see how it all ends! But one hopes hardest, if one is me, for an utterly stress-free Wednesday game in Baltimore, with all of this already sorted, freeing Yusei Kikuchi to go out there and toss like a 14k no-hitter (eleven walks).

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Eight: Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 0

 

go Téo

Aside from Ross Stripling's brilliant six innings, and the three lovely innings the bullpen offered afterwards, the thing that really stood out to me about Friday night's game was how the Blue Jays scored ten runs on twenty-one hits, led by Bo Bichette's four, Téo's four (including a home run), and Danny Jansen's three (which also included a home run and five RBI). I have never witnessed a season-long walloping of the kind the Blue Jays have delivered unto the Red Sox this season, and indeed I think this is statistically as badly as Toronto has ever outplayed an opponent over the whole summer (the baseball summer [which includes a little spring, a little {maybe a lot of} fall]). It has been argued that the Red Sox are better than their record indicates, and that they might well have been a contender this year had they played in the AL Central (Boston, that great city of the great lakes; makes sense to me), and I don't know about all that necessarily, but I can say with certainty that if they hadn't played the Blue Jays this season they'd have like thirteen fewer losses, which would help. And yet I do not wish to help.  A rough year in Boston, and their fans can't even console themselves with the knowledge that as bad as things may be, they still have Jackie Bradley Jr. out there, because they don't; his transformation into Blue Jays Legend Jackie Bradley Jr. was immediate and totalizing, and I love it.

KS   

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Seven: Blue Jays 9, Red Sox 0

 

Vladdy: is unhurried

Home runs from Vladdy (of course), Springer (sure makes sense), and Raimel Tapia (well okay!) were all that was needed and then some as Alek Manoah cruised through six two-hit, shutout innings, and who else but our good friend Yusei Kikuchi turned up to pitch a scoreless three innings of relief (and was awarded a save in one of those special "scorer's discretion" instances). Depending on which measures you prefer, Alek Manoah may have just pitched the best single month in Blue Jays history to cap off one of the best seasons ever by a pitcher his age (the last pitcher to be this good this young may have been Doc Gooden), and Bo Bichette's two hits on the day pulled him ahead of both Tony Fernandez and "The Shaker" Lloyd Moseby for the most hits by a Blue Jay in a single month. How fortuitous that the month in question is September! Five games to go and everything very much in our hands. Four wins would almost certainly do it, and three would probably be enough? Right? 

KS

2022 One-Hundred-Fifty-Six: Yankees 8, Blue Jays 3

 

fair play to him

This one was pretty interesting until it got out of hand: Gerrit Cole was perfect until Danny Jansen's home run kicked off a three-run inning to tie it in the sixth (credit to Mitch White who got touched up but was not utterly blasted), but by the time Adam Cimber botched a throw to the plate and got so frustrated at himself that he then forgot to cover home plate (that's a two-run error!) it was very much a wrap. In between, of course, Aaron Judge hit his sixty-first home run of one of the best seasons you will ever see anybody have ever, and, characteristically, he seemed like a pretty nice guy throughout? A significant moment in American League history, if not in baseball history broadly I suppose (the National League: has had some guys), but more significant still for the Blue Jays was Baltimore's loss against the Red Sox the following afternoon, which clinched our first wild card spot in . . . well in just the two years, really, although the 2020 season was strange for any number of reasons (all derived from the one big reason, I suppose). And so here we are! We could lose our last six games (our last eight overall, then) and still be in the playoffs! But let's not! Because I cannot help but feel that if we end up at the Trop that it is curtains, just utterly curtains. Seattle has faded to such an extent that WC3 does not seem all that likely for the Blue Jays (haha prove me wrong, boys!), and I don't even know that that final wild card spot is as desirable, in the end, as I have thought it might be literally all season long, as the Guardians have low-key been better than anybody these last couple weeks. WC2 would maybe be okay if Seattle finished in WC1, which, again, is unlikely, meaning, I think, that WC2 is a ticket to the Trop. And so while it is not literally "WC1 or bust," it sort of is as far as my cares are concerned? It's Alek Manoah on the hill tonight against the Red Sox, in what we will hope to be his final start of the regular season: John Schneider has said he wants Manoah available to pitch the final game against Baltimore if (and, of course, only if) home-field is on the line, which would take Manoah out of the whole wild card round, which you would hate to see, but I get it. I would like to close by noting the odd fact that the Blue Jays have spent literally every day of this baseball season in a playoff position, which is actually totally wild, and compels us, I think, to reflect upon how tumultuous things can feel over the course of even a totally successful good season by a good team. In a sense, bad teams play under a fairly fixed tumult-ceiling, don't they? In that you can only realistically worry so much about them? As is so often the case, there is much to consider.

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Five: Yankees 5, Blue Jays 2

 

I wish I could say this was the worst of it

The "takeaway" that I have chose to "take away" from this dispiriting loss is that even with a full-on panoply of miscues, mishaps, and even mess-ups, the Blue Jays lost to a good team by an entirely reasonable score of 5-2. Sure, the gaffes and lapses were such that they sent Buck Martinez into a full four minutes (people have posted it!) of "back-in-my-day" in the bottom of the seventh, but hey, what can you do? I will note that the level of hustle Buck Martinez described last night in his widely disseminated clip bears no resemblance to the major league baseball played at any time in my life that I am able to remember, and there is significant overlap between the periods to which Buck referred and to those of my experience (he named names, and they were the names of guys I have watched play baseball, and enjoyed that watching, and they did not, to my recollection, do it as Buck Martinez described last night). There was, as there has been so often lately, a lot of talk about what "can't happen," but it plainly does, so what are we even talking about? Another recent occurrence along those lines was when a graphic was assembled that showed how the Blue Jays record under their top three starting pitchers has been excellent lately, whereas their record with the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation has been very poor. "That can't happen," was a not untypical response, but it's like, yes it can, in that it is happening, and while it is happening you can be at eighty-seven wins with seven games to play, and therefore one of the top teams in Blue Jays history. Right? And then in the playoffs you're pretty much running the top three out an awful lot of the time? These baseball takes have me feeling like Dr. Manhattan! Whom some astute observers have noted looks a whole lot like Aaron Judge! Who sure didn't get a lot to swing at last night, did he? Didn't keep the Yankees from clinching the AL East, though, which they extremely did. What took you so long, one might well ask, given their first half, but this is kind of an "events, dear boy; events" kind of situation (I guess they all are). Mitch White against Gerrit Cole for the series win, let's go! Let's . . . go?

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Four: Blue Jays 3, Yankees 2 (F/10)

 

go Vladdy

It sure is great that Kevin Gausman settled right in after those two early runs, setting the table, as it did, for a rousing extra-innings walk-off win off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.! People love stuff like that! Yankees manager Aaron Boone has been at least a little maligned for his decision to pitch to Vladdy, rather than put him on with a base open, but honestly, Alejandro Kirk is the tougher out, and has been all season: higher OBP, higher wRC+, rarely strikes out, and somehow has like twenty infield hits (I know how: Kirk is slow enough that everybody understandably plays him plenty deep, but he makes a tonne of contact and hustles hard out of the box so there you have it, twenty infield hits). Yankees fans "of the internet" were feeling pretty salty about John Schneider's correct decision to walk Aaron Judge in the tenth to load the bases, but I would argue that if you don't want the Blue Jays to walk the best hitter in either league since Barry Bonds, you shouldn't have a .220 hitter (such as for instance Anthony Rizzo) batting behind him for Tim Mayza to get out no problem? And it isn't as though Yimi Garcia didn't go right after Judge and strike him out with the game on the line in the eighth; it isn't like that at all. And so the dream of a Toronto Blue Jays AL East championship realized by the Yankees losing all of their remaining games whilst the Blue Jays win all of theirs lives to die another day!  

KS  

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Three: Blue Jays 7, Rays 1

 

just out there dinging 

A sheer delight: Ross Stripling and a string of low-leverage relievers (not you, Adam Cimber) including ninth-inning-man Yusei Kikuchi held the ever-(increasingly?)-pesky Rays to just one run on their seven hits. Those were the sorts of relievers called into service on this day because of the extent to which the Blue Jays utterly mashed off the truly excellent Shane McClanahan: Alejandro Kirk's home run went a mile, George Springer's two probably added up to a whole lot of feet also (one was neatly oppo, I should note), and Téo's travelled a fairly absurd four-hundred-sixty-four to left. Oh. Man. The Mariners lost in ridiculous fashion, blowing something like a 10-2 lead giving up an eleven-run inning to the Royals, whilst the Orioles dropped one in extras to the Astros (no shame in that obviously). This split in Tampa was just huge, dropping the Blue Jays magic number to I believe now four, and maintaining a two-game lead for the first wild card spot, and thus a series at home (against either Tampa or Seattle, so it's not all fun and games [though there will be games {which could be fun}]). Three games against the Yankees, who are good again (damn it), will test that lead, but then it's the Red Sox, who are deeply out of it, and finally the Orioles who might very well be out of it by then to? Boy, you would really, really like to think so, wouldn't you?

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-Two: Blue Jays 3, Rays 1

 

the legends say he did this 113 times 

So here is a game I just totally straight-up missed owing to a hurricane, in that the local radio station that carries Blue Jays baseball was not broadcasting at all, and I extremely did not have internet access, so that's about the size of it. All that came to me during the game itself was a text message (even those were spotty) from my brother-in-law that read MERRIFIELD. I asked questions, and got answers: Whit Merrifield's three-run home run (Téo and Zimmer [running or Jansen {pinch hitting for Tapia}] were aboard) complimented Alek Manoah's seven-inning, four-hit (two-walk) shutout ace-terpiece (I'm trying to make that happen [join me]) just wonderfully, and Jordan Romano got Mayza out of a little bit of trouble to close the books on what sounded like a deeply rad game, especially after getting knocked around pretty good in the first two. The split remains in play! It remains! In play!

KS 

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty-One: Rays 10, Blue Jays 6

it wasn't even his fault, really

Oh Yimi, oh no: only one of those four eighth-inning runs was earned (a crucial grounder snuck right under Bo's glove to the consternation of all [and especially Bo]), but all four of them belonged to Yimi all the same. A dark, dark day for those of us to whom Yimi matters possibly even more than he possibly ought? To? I was very pleased to see some nascent anti-Yimi sentiment soundly, indeed resoundingly shouted down at the Blue Jays reddit, but it was troubling that it had even emerged in the first place. There was every reason to think the super-fun four-run Blue Jays fifth was going to be enough, maybe even more than enough, but instead we got Tropped.

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Fifty: Rays 10, Blue Jays 5

 

so squint we all, José Berríos; so squint we all

Don't be fooled: this one wasn't even really as close as a 10-5 score might suggest (which I grant you isn't all that close to begin with). Things started auspiciously enough, with a George Springer leadoff-triple and a Bo Bichette double to drive him in (Bo Bichette now holds the Blue Jays single-season record for doubles by a shortstop with 42 [and counting!] which I have not checked but must have been a Tony Fernandez record, right?). But José Berríos just did not have it, and allowed three runs in each of his two innings of work. You might think they would just kind of leave him out there to take one for the team at the start of the series rather than tax the bullpen, but José was already closing in on like eighty pitches at that point. It was brutal. A home run for Téo, and two, somehow, for Whit Merrifield were bright spots, certainly, but that's more or less it. A pal sent me a "we'll get 'em tomorrow!" kind of text message, which is a nice sentiment, but it looks like a Mitch White + bullpen day, so maybe we'll get 'em Saturday? I am in no way anti-bullpen-day, and I want only good things for Mitch White, who seems neat, but the Rays are just so endlessly pesky and I hate the Trop so much that I am in a bit of a state.

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Nine: Phillies 4, Blue Jays 3 (F/10)

 

and yet . . .

After Kevin Gausman's six scoreless innings, and Tim Mayza's dicey-but-scoreless seventh (he got Harper! Bryce Harper!), it looked like Vladimir Guerrero's thirtieth home run of the season (a towering three-run shot that had the Phillies' broadcast all quiet like "oh no") was going to be enough. And yet it was slightly not, as Yimi struggled, Romano couldn't strand a runner that needed stranding, and Cimber couldn't keep the Phillies off the board in the tenth. As soon as the Phillies tied it, I felt like I should just turn the game off and go do something else, as it felt like a foregone conclusion, but I persisted. Sort of to my peril? My feelings-peril? But it was another night where the Blue Jays got some help on the out-of-town scoreboard, and we now head into four games in the cursèd Trop (things rank and gross in nature possess it merely) in really good shape, all things considered: two up on Tampa, two-and-a-half over Seattle, and, crucially, six-and-a-half over the Orioles with now just thirteen to play. I almost wish the Rays and Mariners were winning of late, and the Blue Jays could just settle into the third Wild Card spot. It would be so carefree! But instead I am thinking things like, "okay, a split at the Trop ought to be enough to keep the Rays at bay (so to speak) headed into the final homestand, and even if we drop a pair to either the Red Sox or the Yankees . . . ", things like that, things that I don't really want to think about as much as you might think (I would [like {to think about them}]). José Berríos tonight, though! His ERA is down below five (4.99) for the first time in months! Let's go!

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Eight: Blue Jays 18, Phillies 11

 

Blue Jays legend Jackie Bradley Jr.

For the first time in kind of a while, a troubled start for Ross Stripling, not that it mattered all that much on account of: the eighteen runs. And so few of them came on home runs, curiously: Matt Chapman's, certainly, and Jackie Bradley Jr.'s, but aside from that it was just an infinity of hits (literally twenty-one), four of which came from Téo, whom we all wish to prosper. Stripling was probably due, indeed overdue, for a less-than-stellar outing, and it's fine, we'll all just overlook this one, no problem at all, but Julian Merryweather got pasted for five runs in two-thirds of an inning of relief and got demoted pretty much right after. I don't even remember who they recalled in his place! I don't think it was a name I recognized! Harsh realm.  

KS 

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Seven: Orioles 5, Blue Jays 4

 

Vladdy just loves to slide; absolutely loves it

Well this was a weird one! First of all, the 2022 Blue Jays win one-run games at a pretty remarkable clip, and are in fact exceeded in one-run wins only by the Los Angeles Dodgers (who have so many wins of every kind this season that it almost isn't relevant). Losing one feels off. So too did Jordan Romano's first blown save in way more than a month; indeed I believe that this was his first blown save in Toronto in his thirty-three such opportunities? Also the Blue Jays hit into a triple play in the early going, and you just don't see that many of those (first of this long season on either side of the ball, as far as I can recall). So a weird one all around! I very much enjoyed Vladdy's towering home run in the seventh (at the time, it felt like enough), and George Springer's RBI-double in the bottom of the ninth to make the finish super tense, so there was plenty to like here, just not the series sweep we had come to hope for. Alek Manoah, by the way, scattered four hits and an uncharacteristic four walks across six tough (for him) innings in a performance that exhibited, I would argue, José Berríos-levels of "gutsiness," which I do not say lightly. Both guys? To me? Awesome guys. Awesome guys. 

An idle Monday benefited the Blue Jays substantially, as the Rays and Orioles both lost; we got ahead by standing still, kind of. Heading into Philadelphia, the Blue Jays have a game on the Rays, a game and a half on the Mariners, all of which is lovely (for now, it will slide around all over the place in the next two weeks, surely), but the crucial Standings Thing at present is the six-and-a-half-game lead we now enjoy over the Orioles, which honestly, is either enough, or should be enough to such an extent that if it turns out not to be enough, then shame on us, right? And fair play to the other guys? It would be stunning if the Orioles ended this, their noble season, with anything more than like 87 wins, given where they are and what lies ahead, and so the Blue Jays would need, by my math, like 88, right? Which is to say: if the Blue Jays, in their final fifteen games over the next two weeks and two days, can win five of those, then, like, here we go. I say we can!

KS

2022 One-Hundred-Forty-Six: Blue Jays 6, Orioles 3

 

Vladdy was absolutely flying in his approach to this dousing

I barely had time to reflect on just how much a close call on a one-one pitch can change the shape of an at-bat (two-one and one-two are worlds apart!) before Raimel Tapia took the one-two pitch to the wall for a two-out, bases-clearing, three-run double in the bottom of the sixth to put the Blue Jays ahead for good. Springer had driven in a pair on a double earlier, and made a pretty sweet diving catch, too, and that was just enough help for José Berríos, who, without his good curveball, somehow allowed just two runs through six high-traffic innings. He is a real fighter out there! Hey, here's something: we would all agree, I'm sure, that quality starts are a coarse measure, and yet they do have a certain broad utility, right? Three or fewer runs in six or more innings does not tell you everything, but it does tell you those specific things, right? Well would you believe that José Berríos now has a great number of quality starts this season (sixteen) than Kevin Gausman (fifteen)? Isn't that wild! It speaks emphatically to the bimodal distribution of José Berríos' starts! Which has long fascinated me!

And now to low-key watch the scoreboard throughout the rest of this Saturday evening (don't worry, I'll do other stuff too), but the really important part is that the Blue Jays are now fully seven games ahead of the team that most threatens their playoff status with sixteen games to play, which, while not a lock, is fairly premium. With Alek Manoah on the hill tomorrow, a sweep does not seem entirely out of the question, does it? Five back of the Yankees now, by the way, who blew a five-run lead and were walked off by the Brewers last night (imagine Bob Uecker's delight).  

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Five: Blue Jays 6, Orioles 3

 

Springer: dinger

A bullpen day to begin a big (though not huge [for us]) three-game series is not ideal, but five games in the preceding four days is extremely non-ideal, and imposes certain limitations. Unavoidably! But it's really no matter at all when Trevor Richards, a day after getting pasted for five runs in mop-up duty gone extremely awry, appears as the opener and strikes out the side (baseball: is weird). From there, Julian Merryweather pitched a scoreless pair, and while Yusei Kikuchi ran into a little trouble (a triple and a homer pretty much right away), he got the next six batters, striking out four of them. A quick word (editor's note: it turns out not to be quick) on the Yusei Kikuchi situation, if I may, and the kind of irrationality that has crept in around it: I would like to draw your attention to a post by the excellent beat reporter Keegan Matheson, perhaps the best day-to-day "follow" in all of the Blue Jay internet. Last night, in what seemed to me an uncharacteristic moment of sports-radio-call-in-thought, he wrote: "Adley Rutschman takes Yusei Kikuchi yard. Two-run shot. These innings just can't keep happening for a team that's serious about a postseason run." The replies are filled with people who agree, like oh man that is so true about this inning and also serious baseball teams. Isn't this wild? A team that is "serious about a postseason run" can't allow a two-run fourth inning in a scoreless game? Against a good team? Of the twelve teams currently holding a playoff spot across the major leagues, and the handful of teams lurking just beyond those twelve, how many of them do you think are going to go through the day (let alone, say, a series, or a trip through the rotation, or a week) without giving up a two-run inning? Are all of these teams then unserious? Are two-run innings disqualifying? If so then there are no baseball teams that are serious about a postseason run, which is a relief, because then we will not have to play any, and once we get in it all ought to be a breeze. I usually don't mind stuff like this for more than a moment, and almost never write about it, but I think because it was the essential Keegan Matheson carrying on in this way that it stuck with me. It feels closely related to the sentiment, seemingly widespread, that a team that is "serious about the playoffs" can't keep having all these bullpen days, which is a view I find untutored yeah that's right untutored in that, putting aside the five-games-in-four-daysness of the recent schedule (and the not insignificant fact that these bullpen days are working in the very real sense that we are allowing few runs and winning games), who has more bullpen days than the Tampa Bay Rays (who we just saw, guys)? And who makes the playoffs more than those old so-and-sos? I am once again reduced to pleading with the baseball commentariat (broadly conceived) to remember that other baseball seasons have been played prior to this one, and to consider that there are things that occurred during them that we might reflect on to inform our present moment. Failing that, sim some seasons, everybody. Just sim them! You'll learn so much! I keep coming back to this point and I apologize for that!

After Kikuchi, then: Mayza ripped through the top of the order; Cimber, Bass and Garcia took it the rest of the way; and home runs from Matt Chapman (two, in fact!) and George Springer (a three-run dinger!) made things downright comfortable from the sixth-inning on. That was more than enough for a pleasant Friday of baseball (aside from the irredeemable Apple TV+ broadcast [it's okay, it drove me to the comfort of radio and the play-by-play data of my computer phone]), but on top of that, all of the Blue Jays playoff positioning foes (the Yankees, Rays, and Mariners) lost! All of them! This only proved to underscore, in a sense, that the AL East looks like an awfully tough climb at this point (five and a half games with seventeen to go?), but a wild card spot seems more solid with each passing day (six games with seventeen to go!). Another win or two this weekend would be a bold step in the right direction, and so I encourage that. José Berríos up next! 

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Four: Rays 11, Blue Jays 0

that's *another* double

A first-inning Vladdy-and-Bo double steal -- in which Vladdy himself was the one to take third! -- produced a false impression of just how rad this getaway-day game would turn out to be, which was, in the end, not rad at all (aside from how the Rays fielded the first all-Latino starting lineup in MLB history on Roberto Clemente Day [neat]): Kevin Gausman did not pitch terribly, but the three-run home run he yielded to Yandy Díaz in the second kind of sealed the deal on a day where Shane McClanahan was, well, dealing. Gausman, to his credit, lasted seven innings, a great boon to the bullpen ahead of what is sure to be a bullpen day of some description. It went Pop, Richards, and Phelps the rest of the way (though not well!), so all of the "high-leverage" arms should be all set as we prepare for a fairly big series against Baltimore. After the series win against the Rays (which I honestly did not anticipate, and feel, on the whole, pretty great about), the Blue Jays sit fully five games ahead of the Orioles with eighteen games to go, and by my feelings-math (it is a kind of math) can probably pretty much put the Orioles away by winning even two of these three. I hope this line of thinking does not come back to ruin and undo me in the final weekend of the season but you can say that about any number of lines of thinking I undertake, so no news there. 

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Three: Blue Jays 5, Rays 1

 

that's a hundo

On the first pitch he saw from Drew Rasmussen, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit the one-hundredth home run of his career, which, at twenty-three years old, makes Vladdy one of the youngest to get there, and if you add to that the qualification that one should also have one hundred career doubles (and why not, doubles rule), Vladdy is the seventh youngest ever, I believe I saw. All good stuff! Vladdy added an RBI on a groundout a little later, and that turned out to be all that was needed, as Ross Stripling pitched about as well you'll ever see him pitch (the only exception that comes to mind is the recent start in which he took a perfect game into the seventh against the Orioles). Bo Bichette continues to be the best or second-best hitter in baseball (remembering of course Aaron Judge), and added two more hits (one of them a double [doubles rule]). Things got ever-so-minorly ticklish in the Adam Cimber seventh, and even Yimi himself gave up a couple of hits in the eighth, but in fairness to Yimi, he also struck out the side (go, Yimi; go, Yimi). And then Anthony Bass! Who has really worked out! And that's a series win, regardless of what may come in the Kevin Gausman start. We will all, I am quite sure, take it. 

KS

2022 Games One-Hundred-Forty-One and One-Hundred-Forty-Two (Doubleheader!): Rays 4, Blue Jays 2 (Game 1); Blue Jays 7, Rays 2 (Game 2)

 

honestly? not half bad! (game one)

honestly? really fully completely good! (game two)

It was low-key dispiriting even for those of us unafflicted by tummy issues to begin the day with the knowledge that Alek Manoah would not, as it happened, be starting game one of the day/night doubleheader against the Rays, owing very much to overnight symptoms that left him . . . dehydrated. This meant the game-two plan became the game-one plan, and as far as game two stood, who knew? But two things must be said of the Blue Jays 4-2 afternoon loss: i) the pitching was actually really very good, in that although Julian Merryweather allowed a run as "the opener," it was only the one run, after which the recently recalled Mitch White essentially gave us a quality start (three earned runs over six innings), and David Phelps finished with two clean innings, so great job all around fellows, to not tax the bullpen really at all; and ii) home-plate umpire Ramon Silvestre De Jesus Ferrer had just a tremendous game, realistically as good as it gets, as revealed by the remarkable ball/strike accuracy (which sounds like a character stat [or results table] in a Palladium martial arts rpg when you say it like that) and in terms of getting tricky calls exactly unfailingly immediately right even when they were a little awkward, like sending a runner back to first after inadvertent batter-follow-through contact with the catcher. You can go a whole season without seeing that call once! And De Jesus made it twice! Clearly and correctly both times! It is very easy (fun, too!) to focus on the antagonistic umpires who attempt to cover their declining skill (hey: it comes for us all) through sheer bluster, but when a young(ish) umpire calls a game so expertly and with such poise, let us call attention to that too, maybe, right? Anyway great job!

Game two, of course, offered so many riches that the quality of umpiring isn't even something that made the least impression on me, in that I was like oh hee hee oh hee hee hee pretty much the whole time: not only did Alek Manoah end up making the start, but he pitched into the seventh, allowing just two runs on solo homers (everybody loves Ji-Man Choi, and I can't imagine anybody's problem is with Jonathan Aranda). The Blue Jays didn't manage a run until the sixth, when two "productive outs" from Bo Bichette and Alejandro Kirk scored Vladdy's lead-off double (he has not homered in quite some time, but doubles are fine!). And then the seventh: walks and wild pitches to put Espinal and Jansen (transmuted into Bradley Zimmer) aboard (and then move them around a little) just in time for Whit Merrifield's two-run double just inside the bag at third. George Springer's first home run of September could not really have been better timed, and there you have it, a four-run seventh for a two-run lead! Adam Cimber got into a little trouble with two out in the eighth, so on came Romano for what looked like a four-out save, but after he got a nice easy ground ball to end the inning, the Blue Jays added two more in the eighth, including, most remarkably, Téo's double that scored Alejandro Kirk all the way from first without a throw (such was the dauntlessness of Kirk's hustle). With a five-run lead, why not just throw Zach Pop out there for the ninth? And so they did. 

Sometimes you look at the standings after splitting a double-header and it's like "well why did we even bother?", but that is not at all the way it feels this time, seeing that the Mariners' loss puts the Blue Jays in the top wild card spot for the first time in what feels like a while (I very recently said I would not concern myself with which wild card spot the Blue Jays were in at any particular moment, and I do still feel that way, but I am definitely not above exalting for a moment here and there), but more importantly, even with Baltimore's comeback win over the lowly Nationals, the Blue Jays are still clear of the Orioles by five-and-a-half games, now with only twenty to go (can you believe it? I pretty much can't!). If the Blue Jays can win either tonight's Kevin Gausman game, or tomorrow afternoon's Ross Stripling start, this five-game series against the Rays will have been a really, really big deal for us.

KS 

2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty: Blue Jays 3, Rays 2

 

the sixth inning . . .

. . . but then the eighth!

On the same day Bo Bichette was named American League Player of the Week, he also chose to hit the seventh-pitch of one-on, two-out at-bat in the bottom of the eighth, with the Blue Jays down by one, just ever-so-slightly over the wall in left-centre, and there you go: the Blue Jays had their first and only lead of the game, which Jordan Romano (with a little help from defensive replacement and Blue Jays legend Jackie Bradley Jr.) locked down in the ninth. A really great game, with a slightly-too-intense playoff feel, and a brisk pace, owing in no small measure to the briskness José Berríos brings always, but especially today. His recent run of really good starts continued, and was perhaps I guess even surpassed, with Monday's two runs (just one earned) in his six-and-a-third. You'll take that every time! This win put the Blue Jays just ahead of the Rays in The Wild Card Ordering, but I have pretty much decided not to attend to that Ordering all that closely anymore until we're down to maybe three or four games left, and just focus on how far ahead of the first-non-playoff-team-Orioles we are (it's six games now, with twenty-two to play, which sounds like plenty?). Otherwise it's . . . it's just too much. Finally, on Bo Bichette's recent greatness, I wanted to note that in the eleven games the Blue Jays have played thus far in September, Bo has collected 24 hits, 21 RBI, 7 home runs, 6 doubles, and scored 15 runs, and apparently since people started keeping track of RBIs in the 1920s, the only other player to reach each of these numbers in an eleven-game stretch was Lou Gherig in 1930. This seems notable! Go ahead, Bo!

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Nine: Rangers 4, Blue Jays 1

 

say what you will, Trevor Richard did indeed "open"

There was no small measure of traffic on the basepaths, both early and often, but in the end, "bullpen day" really went pretty well: Richards, Phelps, Kikuchi, Merryweather, Pop, and Bass allowed, between all like eighty of them, four runs, which is a perfectly reasonable amount of runs to allow, right? This one was on the bats, but you can't even really mind it as we wrap what turns out to have been an eight-and-two road trip, which is just a wildly good kind. So good, in fact, that the Blue Jays head into this weighty week with everything a little lighter: there is now enough "daylight," as they say, between the Blue Jays and Orioles that even if the Blue Jays were to drop all five games (in four days!) against the Rays (wouldn't that be awful! like legitimately awful!), and the Orioles were to win all week, the Blue Jays would still hold the final playoff position as those two bird-teams bird-off against one another next weekend, birdingly. Although Tampa Bay sits only a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays, and so objectively these two teams are like almost exactly equally good, I nevertheless remain spooked by the Rays, and feel like it would be lovely to take even just two of these games; three feels like an impossible dream. Darest we dream it? Darest we?

KS  

2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Eight: Blue Jays 11, Rangers 7

 

he usually needs to run faster

Kevin Gausman, who allowed three runs in the first inning, was certainly not at his best Saturday, but if Raimel Tapia is going to hit monstrous three-run bombs, and Bo Bichette is going to hit three of the Blue Jays seven doubles, then that's fine! Danny Jansen homered also, let us note. Just a great day for the bats: every starter had at least one hit en route to the Blue Jays first double-digit score since the end of July (that's surprising!), so Gausman's iffy-start and Zach Pop's indifferent relief totally get a pass, no problem whatsoever. To return for a moment to Bo Bichette's three doubles, if I may, which is really a lot of doubles: Bo is now the first MLB player with thirteen extra-base hits over a nine-game span since Bo himself did it in 2019 (when he would have been approximately fourteen years old), and ties himself (obviously), Carlos Delgado (1999), and Joe Carter (1990) as the only Blue Jays to have ever hit that many over so few, because really, that is an awful lot of them to hit. Hey great job Bo! And with that, and indeed all of this, the Blue Jays are now closer to the division lead (five back) than they are to being in any kind of Baltimore-trouble, and have tucked, if only temporarily, right into the second wild card spot, a half-game ahead of Seattle, a half-game behind Tampa Bay. I do not anticipate this truly incredible road trip to end with anything but a thud tomorrow, given its bullpen-day nature, but I suppose stranger things have happened? You never know? It went okay in Pittsburgh last week? Maybe Trevor Richards has it all figured out now? And the boys? Will perhaps choose boppin'?  

KS    

2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Seven: Blue Jays 4, Rangers 3

 

pretty much the only play that has not
 gone Bo's way so far in September

Ross Stripling was about as good as you can be, and Bo Bichette continued to be ridiculous, hitting a three-run home run and a triple, but it still came very much down to the wire, and  took Raimel Tapia's steal of second and Danny Jansen's soft single into left to plate the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. From there, the Blue Jays understandably turned it over to probably the league's best relief pitcher (by some measures!), Jordan Romano, who allowed a baserunner and a steal of second, but nary a run -- it kind of felt like a squeaker! The Blue Jays have been remarkable in one-run games this year, and I would like them to continue to be that down the stretch, please. 

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Six: Blue Jays 4, Orioles 1

 

Big. Puma.

A slightly shaky first inning yielded soon enough to all kinds of great stuff thereafter:  Alek Manoah allowed just a single baserunner in innings two through eight (inclusive) in what ended up a one-run three-hitter (one walk) of an outing, leaving only the ninth for the still-weirdly-great Jordan Romano, who struck out two and kept everything nice and cool. With pitching like this, you barely need to hit, but Alejandro Kirk decided to anyway, and went three-for-five. Nice! So that makes it a tidy three wins out of four in Baltimore, which puts the Blue Jays a slightly more comfortable four-and-a-half games ahead of the Orioles for the final (and arguably best? have we talked about this? we have? okay just checking) wild card playoff spot. Off to Texas, then, to face the somewhat lowly Rangers while the Yankees and Rays, one would hope, destroy themselves utterly, allowing the Blue Jays to gain a game on one team or the other other with every win this weekend (the Orioles will play Boston, who I hope are about to enjoy a resurgence; I would like them to resurge real quick). The Blue Jays sit a game and a half behind Tampa, and just half a game behind the Mariners so far as the other wild card positions are concerned, but really my attentions (as far as the out of town scoreboard goes) are focused on just the Orioles and the Yankees at this point, really: if the Orioles struggle even a little down the stretch, the Blue Jays should breeze into the postseason; and if the Yankees struggle just a little more than "even a little" down the stretch, the Blue Jays have a slight (but distinct!) shot at the AL East title, which would be amazing to happen. But that is <<un besoin, pas un désir,>> it's okay. I feel reasonably alright about this weekend's baseball, but not great at all about five games in four days against the Rays next week. That could be rough. But here we go!

KS

2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Five: Orioles 9, Blue Jays 6

 

Mitch White did not have "big fun" in Baltimore

Five runs in two-and-a-third from Mitch White didn't do us any favours, nor did the four further runs the bullpen allowed thereafter. Had Trevor Richards, who has been really good lately, not given up three of those bullpen runs, then maybe? But alas. Bo Bichette homered again, this time as part of a four-for-five night, which interestingly brings him to an OPS+ of 121 or a wRC+ of 122 on the season, both of which are precisely the same as his 2021 numbers: although Bo hasn't quite put up the same kinds of totals he did last year, offense is down league-wide, and, relative to the league, he is having the same season at the plate as he did last year. Wild, right? Beyond that, weirdly overconfident inconsequential reliever Bryan Baker decided to be unkind towards Téo and the benches cleared for a bit, but it was, in the end, not really a big deal. Imagine how much of a jerk you have to be to be mean to Téo, though. Fool. Ish. Ness. 

KS

2022 Games One-Hundred-Thirty-Three and One-Hundred-Thirty-Four: Blue Jays 7, Orioles 3 (Game 1), Blue Jays 8, Orioles 4 (Game 2)

 

Some call it "Bo-ing yard"

Bo Bichette made enormous contributions to both halves of the rainy Labour Day doubleheader in Baltimore, becoming only the second Blue Jay to hit three home runs in a single game before his twenty-fifth birthday (guess who the other one is [okay I will just tell you {it's Vladdy}]) in the evening game, after intervening with a quickness in the early game when Kevin Gausman grew understandably irate over crew chief Jeff Nelson's decision to call a balk on what is Kevin Gausman's normal delivery from the stretch, the same one he has used all season, and that he continued to use every single pitch from the stretch after the call today. That was a truly unwieldy opening sentence but there was just so much great stuff yesterday that I am all jumbled up about it, and Bo was in the thick of all of it. Had he not kept Gausman from truly flipping his wig, it could have been an awfully long day for the Blue Jays bullpen, but instead, it was easy work: both starters pitched into the seventh, and gave all of the highest-leverage arms (Romano, Yimi, Bass) a day's rest after a couple pretty heavy days in Pittsburgh to seal the deal on the series sweep. Curiously, the 7-3 game was actually a nail-biter (until the Blue Jays three-run ninth), whereas the 8-4 evening game was never close. You'd never know it from the finals! They look like the same game! And yet. 

I am feeling pretty good with two games remaining in the series and Alek Manoah going in one of them, and I hope you are feeling that way too. Before that, though, there is Mitch White, so kind of a coin toss, maybe? If he can keep it close through five, the bullpen should be in pretty good shape to take it the rest of the way, though, for reasons already discussed. How cheering to think that, should the Blue Jays win Tuesday, and the Yankees lose, the Blue Jays would be closer to the AL East lead (4.5 games back) than to the first non-playoff position (5.5 games ahead). If we accept the Orioles are still "in it" as regards the final wild card spot, and I think we are forced to accept that much, then it is no less true that the Blue Jays are still "in it" as regards the division title, especially with three more games to play against the Yankees. September baseball! 

KS