2022 Game Twenty: Blue Jays 1, Red Sox 0

 

Big. Puma.

With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. resting a day after fouling one just right off his foot, the Blue Jays lineup had a bit of a spring training vibe to it. But no matter: Alejandro Kirk singled Lourdes Gurriel Jr. home in the third, and that, tidily enough, was all that was needed. Alek Manoah pitched exceedingly well even by his standards, with just three hits and a lone walk in his seven scoreless innings (that's how many strikeouts he had, too: seven scoreless ones). A comparison I often draw to (I can only assume) the ongoing delight of those around me is between Alek Manoah and Juan Guzman, and I was very pleased to see the Blue Jays broadcast graphically confirm that I have been really very insightful indeed to have noted this (and so often):

I took a picture of my computer with my phone

The Blue Jays have won each of Manoah's last twelve starts, and he has himself been credited with the win in eight straight (say what you will about "pitcher wins," and I will say those things right alongside you for sure), which puts him in second place in each of those categories as far as team history goes (Jimmy Key for the first one, Roger Clemens for the second), behind only 2003 Roy Halladay, all of whose home games I attended, and yeah I can confirm he was super good that year. Let's keep it rolling with Yusei Kikuchi on the mound Friday night! Right guys! Right . . . guys? 

In closing I would add only that these Thursday afternoon getaway-day games accord so wonderfully with the rhythms of the preschool day that they should consider doing these not just on Thursdays but instead on all weekdays, thus freeing our evenings completely, and sending young fans to bed secure in their knowledge of the day's events. Although I suppose this might cut into Blue Jays in Thirty enthusiasm, so I guess it is complicated.

KS

2022 Game Nineteen: Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 1

altogether too much of this, in my opinion 

Ross Stripling worked his way "out of" some early trouble and "into" another really fine start, all things considered: just one run on five hits (no walks), and an impressive seven strikeouts. That Thornton, Merryweather, and Vasquez all got dinged in relief is more or less besides the point, as the Blue Jays bats were well and truly stymied. Glady, we had Harry's Grand Slam Baseball Game (try it! it's fun!) to smooth the rough edges of our baseball evening (although actually I got pasted pretty hard in that game as well [a grand slam and a two-run triple in the same inning? get the hook!]). Ah, well: Alek Manoah on the hill for the getaway-day Thursday afternoon game, so every chance for a series win remains. Let's all watch after school.

KS 

2022 Game Eighteen: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 5 (F/10)

 

he does not (swing and) miss

The exquisite art of 講道館 柔道 Kodokan Judo and my duties thereto kept me from the fast-moving early innings of this game, and so I did not see first-hand Kevin Gausman's nine-strikeouts (no walks) over six innings of four-hit, one run baseball (the essential Blue Jays in Thirty of course helped later). By the time I got to a radio (or in this instance a mobile device connected via bluetooth to a car because the actual radio station was playing a hockey game [come on man]), Yimi Garcia had reversed course pretty hard on his thus-far-scoreless season and was getting smoked en route to a four-run eighth inning that, I assumed, was going to be that. However! For whatever reason I checked in with the radio (in fact computer radio via computer phones once again) like an instant before bed, and caught the immediate aftermath of George Springer's two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth, two-run home run (scoring Espinal, whose double had previously scored Tapia) to bring the Blue Jays even. Neat! And so to the TV (in fact a computer running a grey-area commercial-free stream of the game that works better than the one we have subscribed to) in time for Jordan Romano's top of the tenth, and the fun that followed in the home half: Bichette starting out at second, an intentional walk to Vladdy (obviously), Kirk working a hard-earned walk of his own to load the bases, Chapman down looking (hey at least he did not ground into a double play; a strikeout is not the worst thing), and Ramiel Tapia's fouls-aplenty at-bat that culminated in a fly ball to left that was just deep enough to score Bo, who I maybe think should have slid, but who did not, and yet it was fine, so what do I know? Another fairly ludicrous win, and one that assures us that, once the Red Sox leave town, the Blue Jays will have lost literally none of the six series they will have played to open the season (have I mentioned this is their toughest stretch all year?). "The series," of course, is at once a fake idea, and also not a fake idea at all, in that one must organize one's time (and one's time-thoughts) somehow, after all. 

To conclude, I would like to note how nice it has been in the first two games of this homestand to see Teoscar Hernandez back in the dugout, even if he is not yet able to play. His presence, as seen below, is a merry one, and I value it.

KS   

2022 Game Seventeen: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 2

no

big

deal

The way Bo Bichette had been going -- and I mean the very specific way Bo Bichette had been going (consider, darkly, the first-inning, first-pitch double play ball he right back to Nathan Eovaldi earlier this same night) -- certainly made me fear the worst when he came to bat with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the eighth, tied at two after José Berríos' very fine start (some early hard contact, a slickly fielded 1-2-3 DP to get out of trouble in the second, before later cruising through twelve-straight Red Sox batters) had yielded to Adam Cimber's "blown save" (technically yes, but I mean come on). But all he has to do to be a hero now, I opined couch-north, is hit a fly ball. Well he sure did! Bo Bichette's first career grand slam came at quite a moment, and the way he reacted to it -- as though this was so obvious an outcome that it is weird that he even had to actually do it -- suggests that whatever further struggles may yet greet him, he will not lack for confidence in addressing them, or for a sense of the inevitability of his eventual triumph over them. Bo will, I would argue, be fine. 

Great game! Home runs from Gurriel (that's two games in a row) and Matt Chapman (another great play at third, perhaps unsurprisingly), and an unreal George Springer catch in left-centre that was so close to an exact replication of one he made last year that the Blue Jays twitter account put one on top of the other so that you might be weirded by the similarity (way ahead of you, Blue Jays twitter account; way ahead) -- under the heading, once again, of Certified Glover Boy. Lots to like! And José Berríos, aka La Makina, is such an easy player to get behind, a real classy pro of a guy, tipping his hat to the appreciative crowd in a genteel way but not making too much of a thing of it, either; José Berríos is like exceedingly show, but in a way that is distinct from the way in which Bo Bichette is (certainly no less) show; there is much to ponder as regarding the bounds of show; its contours, its strictures.

KS     

2022 Game Sixteen: Astros 8, Blue Jays 7 (F/10)

 

it was bound to happen

This one felt like maybe a half-dozen different games, several of which the Blue Jays had no shot in, a couple they absolutely should have won, and there was maybe one in there that could have gone either way. Yusei Kikuchi continues to defy all previously known things and ways, and in so doing allowed only two earned runs alongside several that were less so (a tough inning for Bo) whilst getting kind of smoked, although not exactly? How could Kikuchi's ERA this far into whatever it he's doing this season be only 3.75? It is super wild but I am way in; it is just a blast, honestly. But Sunday, it was tough on the bullpen: seven relievers tried to piece it together the rest of the way, and did fine, mostly, but Jordan Romano's thirty-one-straight-save-streak (it was really something!) ended in a tenth-inning walk-off home run off the bat of young Jeremy Peña, who seems like he's going to be a very fine shortstop for a long time (is this in part why they did not throw further zillions at Carlos Correa?). This one was a really a whole lot of fun, with a three-run shot from Zack Collins in a big spot in the sixth, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. both hitting one out (solo shot in the fifth) and making the most perfectly Lourdes-Gurriel-Jr play possible in the field: weird route to a fly ball down the line but slid ambitiously and enthusiastically to try and make the catch, missed it, ran the ball down and threw a strike to third base to the get the runner who quite understandably thought this had triple written all over it. He's a likeable guy, that Lourdes Gurriel Jr.! Both the way he plays, and all of the hugging. He is probably our best hugger.

A tough loss, in the sense that it came on a walk-off in the tenth ("Vladdy will lead off the tenth!" I enthused, but my daughter, wise to the ways of the Manfred Man, correctly checked that enthusiasm immediately: "They're just gonna walk him" [lol they sure did]), h o w e v e r let us remember that the series had already been won (a fake but not useless idea), and although the sweep would indeed have been grand, let us agree that a four-and-two road trip to Boston and Houston is a completely desirable outcome, and let us further agree to leave it at that. Hey speaking of both the Red Sox and Astros, let's play seven straight at home against them! That's like a whole week! No off days, Jordan Romano; no off days.

KS  

2022 Game Fifteen: Blue Jays 3, Astros 2

 

well rounded, Bo; well rounded

I was unable to follow the earliest innings of this one except via play-by-play data, as I was tied up at a roller disco (for real), and there was no way the radio would have been discernible above all of the, you know, roller disco funk. Nevertheless: the returning (in several senses) George Springer opened the game with a home run, which is the best way to do it, and Alek Manoah took to the mound in super high socks, which, as the broadcast noted (I picked this part up only on the vital Blue Jays in Thirty broadcast the next day) was a style shared by all nine non-Manoahs in the starting lineup yesterday. They seemed to be doing it in support of him, or to low-key troll him joshingly, or something? In any event it was a sharp look and I would like to see more of it. Manoah, whose first-inning two-run home-run-allowed (Jim Bregman) did not seem to trouble greatly, continues to be the best young starter in Blue Jays history, as measured both by the sort of numbers that are entirely within his control and also according to the more wholistic measure of how often the Blue Jays win when he pitches. This is a pretty remarkable thing to be happening, and I do not think it is going totally unnoticed, but I do think it has received less attention than it might have were he not surrounded by the most exciting young team the Blue Jays have had since 1984 or thereabouts. This is all to say I get it but I did want to note this once more! Lourdes Gurriel drew us even with a little looper of a sacrifice fly that got the middle infielders all tied up (scurrying home with your tying run: a seemingly-getting-it-together-a-little-at-the-plate Bo Bichette) in the sixth, and Santiago Espinal hit what proved to be the game-winning home run (his second in as many days, no big deal) in the seventh. The bullpen (Phelps, Borucki for just one out but in a huge spot, and Garcia) was again excellent, and with Jordan Romano pitching just about every day, it seems, and needing a break it fell to Adam Cimber (whose sidearm style may be corrupting the youth; I have limited but real backyard-baseball evidence that this is occurring) to protect the one-run lead in the ninth. With one on and one out, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. caught a liner ripped right at him, one of those catches that is as much an act of self-defense as a display of defensive acumen, and stepped on the bag for the game-ending double play. He was smiling so big before he even got over there! 

And so, regardless of how things go tomorrow (though one hopes well), the league-leading Blue Jays have taken both of this week's road-series, first in Boston, now in Houston, and, at ten-and-five, have won two-thirds of their games to end this, the first half of their toughest thirty-game stretch of the season -- all this despite some injury trouble (it would have been nice to have had Téo and Jansen, certainly) and some serious underperformances at the plate (Gurriel has yet to homer, Bichette has struggled mightily). But the starting pitching has been very good, the bullpen has been even better, and the boys have made some huge plays in the field (if you hear any noise, it is the sound of them . . . gloving?). There is still plenty of time left in this opening stretch for things to go quite badly (the Red Sox come in for four this week, then the Astros for another series before more Yankees games), but if they can even play it .500 for the next couple weeks, this will all set up nicely for that crucial, make-or-break late-May push (it is possible I am attending to closely to the schedule right now).

Yusei Kikuchi on the mound Sunday! Guaranteed to be interesting!

KS 

 

2022 Game Fourteen: Blue Jays 4, Astros 3

 

 Vladdy was w h e e l i n ' 

It's hard to believe (if you are me) that the last time for-sure-Hall-of-Famer Justin Verlander started against the Blue Jays, it was the no-hitter back in September of 2019, but this is apparently the case (who am I to doubt Dan Shulman?). He was not far off that form at all Friday night, at least not through the first three innings, in which he allowed no hits and had faced the minimum (Bo Bichette walked but was, alas, caught stealing). But Raimel Tapia singled to open the fourth, glided first-to-third on Vladdy's liner to right, and scored on what could well have been an inning-ending double play but instead ended up a run-scoring fielder's choice on account of Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s hustle down the line (hey Lourdes: nice hustle man). This was all very cheering, because Ross Stripling, who is doing everything you could ask of him and arguably more, had been tagged for three in the bottom of the third (we were not upset about it, to be clear). Then with two outs in the fourth, the Blue Jays pulled even with back-to-back home runs (!) from Santiago Espinal (!!) and Bradley Zimmer (!!!), just like you would draw it up were you to take even the most cursory glance at the Blue Jays lineup. Stripling handed things off to a bullpen of Thornton, Cimber, and Mayza, who combined for four perfect innings (without middle relief, you have nothing), although one must of course credit the defense here pretty hard: Bichette had some nice plays, Espinal was diving all over the place, and Bradley Zimmer ran one down a long way into the weird part of left-center (I really do not care for this ballpark). The Blue Jays infield defense especially, but just their defense overall, has become such a strength, and it was very much on display! This game totally had a tight, playoff feel, and seemed like the game of the year so far even before Vladdy singled to open the ninth and then booked it home on Matt Chapman's double, just tearing around the bases so hard to slide in as the ball was cut off at the mound (somebody tell that man to ease up [except don't]). In Flight Vladdy is maybe my favourite sight to see in all of baseball right now, and aside from the pure joyous spectacle of it all, he is actually an above-average runner according to the tracking data (and he is, you may have noted with your own tracking data, of above-average size). I loved it; Vladdy loved it; everybody loved it. Jordan Romano, who you've got to think is going to mess up a save opportunity eventually (right? like, eventually?), had another ticklesque ninth inning (two singles meant Astros on the corners with one out, tying run at third), but struck out Jason Castro and pinch-hitting rookie J. J. Matijevic to end the game. I felt for Matijevic: this was his first MLB plate appearance, and he sees two 98MPH fastballs just off the corners, and chases another way up out of the zone to end the game. I saw that Dusty Baker was taking a little bit of heat for that move after the game but I definitely like Dusty Baker more than I like anybody who has any ill to speak of Dusty Baker, so I was unfazed (don't worry).

KS

2022 Game Thirteen: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 2

lanken up, Gausman

If I am not mistaken, I think I saw that the last time a Blue Jays starter pitched a complete game was 2017? Kevin Gausman didn't quite yesterday afternoon, but it sure seemed like he could have, with only eighty-eight pitches (seventy strikes!) in his eight super-efficient innings of work (seven hits, eight strikeouts, no walks) before Trevor Story's groundball single opened the ninth, and in came Jordan Romano. Who let things get dicey: a walk to Devers, a Xander Bogaerts double to score Story, and a Verdugo groundout to plate Devers and put the tying run on third made things decidedly ticklish. But after a nice play by Matt Chapman to hold the runner at third whilst getting Dalbec in plenty of time at first, Romano worked his way back from a 3-0 count against Jackie Bradley Jr., who grounded Romano's 3-2 pitch to a scurrying Vladdy at first. So a wild one this time, but another save for Romano, his seventh, to go along with his 1.89 ERA. Okay!

The Blue Jays three runs ranged from the commonplace (Gosuke Katoh on a Bo Bichette single to right, Raimel Tapia on a sacrifice fly Vladdy hit to deep centre) to the comical (Vladdy, who had doubled, came into score on a two-out, forty-three-foot [but much higher] Matt Chapman RBI-single pop-up that the catcher couldn't get to but shouldn't have had to ["nice play, Shaw," is my cutting remark on that one]). Each proved, in the end, so necessary.

And so that's two-out-of-three in Fenway, the only loss coming in the 2-1 series opener that saw the Blue Jays strand ("strand" is conventional language in this context but also quite vivid) I believe eight runners. The 8-5 Blue Jays are alone atop the East, and are tied with the Angels (the Angels?) for the best record in the American League. Oh hey, did you see Ohtani's line(s) the other night? Wednesday night against the Astros he went two-for-four with a double and a walk, one run scored, two RBI; and also 6 innings pitched, no runs, one hit, one walk, twelve strikeouts. What!

On to Houston for three, and while the Astros have only been okay so far this season, one expects that they will start being totally good really any time now; and one dreads this, slightly.

KS   

 

2022 Game Twelve: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox

 

It did seem a cool night

Not lost among the many virtues of a five-run top-of-the-second to put the Blue Jays ahead for good is the extent to which such an inning, so timed, demonstrates commendable respect for and consideration of the bedtime needs of the preschool (and even the elementary school) set. Thank you, Raimel Tapia (two-run homer wrapped around Pesky's Pole in right) and pals (three other runs, no less welcome) for your service in this regard. Jose Berrios settled in after some early jitters, one might say, or one might say in alternative that the first inning carries with it the highest run expectancy as it is the only inning in which the pitcher is assured to be facing the top of their opponents' lineup and so we would perhaps be best to disabuse ourselves of the very notion of early jitters and settling in from them, but the power of convention is strong (tradition is the democracy of the dead, as they say). It's a shame Berrios hit Trevor Story in the head, but honestly that seemed to have worked as well as it could have: Story though understandably surprised (a 93mph fastball off your helmet, in addition to all the other concerns, would be so loud) was unhurt and stayed in the game; Berrios expressed his regret; nobody got silly with retributive plunkings. George Springer took one off the forearm later, but it seemed legitimately incidental/accidental, and it turns out he is probably not going to miss more than today's getaway game, which is a relief, as both Téo and Jansen remain out for now (though man, Kirk is really hitting in Jansen's absence! he could hit just as well in his presence though I bet). Something we noticed last night as the game was unfolding, and which was statistically confirmed to be the case today, was that the home-plate umpire was really having a heck of a game back there, even if not everyone was pleased all of the time (Vladdy is being very particular these days!). I think the umpire scorecard today had it at 97% accuracy? That's fantastic. So imagine my surprise to find out that it had been Angel Hernandez all along! We must give him his due. Also I must turn the game on immediately (love getaway Thursdays!). 

KS  

  

2022 Game Eleven: Red Sox 2, Blue Jays 1

 

This photo speaks to my experience of watching Yusei Kikuchi pitch,
though I acknowledge that that experience will be unique to each of us

Well, phooey! Yusei Kikuchi and those who followed in his strange wake (Phelps, Garcia, Richards), allowed but three scattered hits (and, though no fewer walks, also no more of them) yet the Blue Jays' bats could plate but a single run on their eight hits. As pleasing as it is to see Alejandro Kirk  reach on not one but indeed two infield singles (please ponder this), and for Vladdy to go two-for-three-with-a-walk after some tough games, it cannot be but a source of minding that the Blue Jays left so many runners on. And poor Bo Bichette, who has been much improved defensively this season, and who definitely saved a run with a lovely play to end the third, but who put the winning run on second with a wayward through that he rushed when he really needn't have at all . . . I saw a headline about Bo "taking responsibility for his errors" but I mean, this is silly to talk about. I think he would have rather thrown it better, if that's what anyone is concerned about (and Vladdy, I'm sure, would tell you he could/should have probably scooped that, tricky hop though it certainly was). But with all of this said, the fundamental thing about this game is that it was a Yusei Kikuchi game, which is to say that it is at once literally describable and yet, in a larger sense, resistant to all classification. My wife has started a Samsung Note on her phone in order to create a record of how it feels to be present near the baffling (and yet not trying) ordeal of Yusei Kikuchi's pitching; I am so glad that he is with us this season, so that we might be nearer his mystery. 

KS 

2022 Game Ten: Blue Jays 4, Athletics 3

 

In addition to how cool Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s hair looks
in this photograph, please consider about how happy
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. must be with how cool his hair
looks in this photograph.

This was a lot of fun! "Big Puma" Alek Manoah (I think Pete Walker rightly understands nicknaming as a crucial aspect of coaching, and in no way distinct from the mechanical aspects of his vocation) proved once again our most reliable starting pitcher, more or less cruising through a two-runs-on-four-hits-(couple-walks)-in-six-complete kind of day, while the bats just put things together a run at a time: Springer on a Gurriel sac fly in the first; Zack Collins (!) on an Espinal single in the second; Gurriel on a Chapman single in the third; and Gurriel whipping around the bases on a throwing error that sent the ball sailing far wide of A's charismatic second baseman Tony Kemp. Cavan Biggio made a nice diving catch in right field, Bo Bichette had a pair of hits (hopefully he gets everything straightened out [it's been a little rough {though not in the field}]), and Vladdy made a nice toss to Tim Mayza, who then made a fairly spectacular diving tag to get the runner at first. I felt good for Vladdy to have another good day in the field, because ever since the three-homer game against the Yankees, it's been rough: 0-4 (4K), 2-3 (HR, 1B, BB), 0-4, 0-4 (3K). If it's getting him down, it has not really shown up on the dugout camera yet, which revealed a very tender hug with Bo, and also a neat moment where Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was attending to Vladdy's hair whilst George Springer attended to Gurriel's (there's a lot of look to be maintained, team-wide). Oh, also on Springer: early on, he was called out for interfering with the A's catcher, preventing a throw down to second when the follow-through on his swing took him in front of the plate, and he sure was mad about it, but I think it was the correct call. I bet he was mostly just mad at himself, honestly, but we don't always express that in ways that are respectful of the people around us.

On to Fenway for three! But first, an off-day, the first of the season, which feels weird for me, but is probably welcomed by the players (I guess).

KS

2022 Game Nine: Athletics 7, Blue Jays 5

 

long tossin' 

Rather than focusing our attention on Hyun-Jin Ryu's troubles (another tough start, and now an IL-stint that might be as much as face-saving measure as anything else), Jeff Nelson's statistically-hard-to-believe game behind the plate (68% accuracy on called strikes when the league average is 88%, the worst such game for anybody in a couple years [Charlie Montoyo got kicked out! and he's usually so nice!]), the Blue Jays' pretty nifty comeback to even the game at five in the sixth (back-to-back homeruns from Matt Chapman and everybody's new favourite slugger Zack Collins!), or the two decisive runs allowed by Julian Merryweather in the ninth (fairly or not, I feel very uneasy with either Merryweather or Pearson on the mound, and I think this might last forever), I would instead like to note above all other concerns (even Vladdy and Bo's combined oh-for-eight on the day [yikes!]) the four scoreless innings pitched by Trent Thornton (he had two of them), David Phelps, and Yimi Garcia to keep things from getting out of hand after Ryu's early exit, and allowing the Blue Jays bats to get them back into the game. Without middle relief, you've got nothing! And it looks like we've got the best middle relief we have had in really quite some time. I am all for it.

KS

2022 Game Eight: Blue Jays 4, Athletics 1

 

Raimel Tapia was safe by more than this photograph
would suggest, but it was thrilling all the same

As delightful as it was to see Vladimir Guerrero Jr. whack one four-hundred-and-twenty-eight-feet to the opposite field (very!), the true pleasures of Friday night's game were more subtle, and came in fine performances from guys you have to spend much more of your time actively hoping for, if they are to have any hope at all: Raimel Tapia, Santiago Espinal, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (I still feel the need to hope for him), and especially recent-call-up Zack Collins, were essential. And let us not overlook Ross Stripling, who pitched four scoreless innings (two hits, no walks, three strikeouts) as a sixth-starter/swing-man/Ryu-pitches-better-with-an-extra-day-guy. That's a key rôle! After Trevor Richards pitched a solid fifth, Tim Mayza got little ruffled in just a third of an inning's work, but the Cimber/Garcia/Romano portion of the bullpen was once again tremendous (combined, they have given up a total of one run so far this season). That's five saves for Jordan Romano already! And four "holds" for Yimi Garcia, which is what he's being asked to do with games (to hold them). 

So overtaken have I been by this young season of Blue Jays baseball that I found myself listening to Baltimore radio as I got ready for bed just in case the Orioles might finish off the Yankees in the bottom of the eleventh. First of all, their were actual radio ads for crab cakes, which is amazing, and secondly, they did! Or perhaps the Yankees can be said to have finished themselves in, as Aroldis Chapman (honestly not a fan), who walked the bases full but got out of it against the Blue Jays, walked in the winning run Friday night. And so the Blue Jays sit alone atop the AL East with their 5-3 record, good for a .625 winning percentage, which would play out as a 101-win season over a full 162. The Blue Jays have arguably already won, but they will continue to play, mostly for the pleasant diversion of it. 

KS

2022 Game Seven: Yankees 3, Blue Jays 0

 

Take a knee, boys

Well, they sure had their chances: Bo Bichette doubled in the first, and Gurriel was aboard behind him after having been really quite smoked by a 98 MPH fastball from Luis Severino (Alek Manoah got [unduly] mad about it) but it didn't turn into anything; the bases were loaded in the second (Kirk on a[n infield!] single, Biggio a walk, Bradley Zimmer an error), but likewise. It wasn't until the eighth that the Blue Jays really threatened again, with Guriel and Raimel Tapia aboard, and the ninth, wherein Aroldis Chapman (who I guess we don't still talk about like he's a bad guy? except that I do?) walked the bases loaded, which seemed super promising until Matt Chapman misread a little Bo Bichette flare into very shallow right (more like "deep second base," as it turned out) and was doubled off to end the game, his head hung low (it wobbled to; and fro). Throughout it all, it was super rainy, and started late, so probably not a lot of fun. 

Kevin Gausman, it must be said, looked really good again, with two earned runs on six hits and nine strikeouts (no walks) pitching into the sixth inning. The splitter was splitting! 

Perhaps most notably, and indeed perhaps most instructively, Vladimir Guerrero followed his semi-mythic-already three-homer-(plus-that-sweet-double)-despite-getting-stepped-on game by going oh-for-four with four strikeouts. Baseball's weird! And, as Marcus Semien told Hazel Mae in a characteristically pleasant post-game interview last year, "baseball's hard."  

With that four-game split in New York (never a bad outcome, though we'd hoped for better), let's take a quick look at the AL East standings as the Blue Jays head home for three against the pretty-good-so-far Oakland Athletics, okay, looks like we've got a Blue Jays/Yankees/Rays three-way tie for first, with the Red Sox a half-game back. Checks out! The first thirty games are a really tough stretch on the Blue Jays schedule, the toughest part of the whole year, arguably; if they can just stay with the pack through this first month or so, even just a game or two about .500, we will be "super in business" (somewhat non-idiomatic but that is how I feel about it). 

KS

2022 Game Six: Blue Jays 6, Yankees 4

 

Hey guys it's Vladdy

Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s first home run of the night came on a Gerrit Cole slider that stayed up and didn't break that much ("a bit of a cookie," Arden Zwelling called it afterwards), and his third came on of a pretty good pitch from a pretty good pitcher, Jonathan Loáisiga, who doesn't give up all that many home runs (like at all). But it was definitely Vladdy's second of the game that was the most striking, in that Gerrit Cole's 98 MPH fastball was several inches off the plate inside, and there was nowhere near enough room for Vladdy to extend his arms even a little: he kept his hands in tight, though, got the barrel on the ball like it was no big deal (in context this was a very big deal), and hit it more than four hundred feet (his three home runs averaged 429ft on the night). It was the kind of pitch that you can reasonably expect to turn into a broken bat. "Jammed him," you would hear Buck Martinez say in what my old friend Bill describes as Buck's cartoon pelican voice (Bill says it with love), and that would be that. Except it wasn't! So that was the at-bat that really stuck with me. The one that seemed to really stick with Cole, though, was the 0-2 double to right, after which Cole tipped his cap to Vladdy before sighing visibly and doing whatever the exact opposite of tipping his cap is to himself (whatever Gerrit Cole's personal faults may be, I don't think "he's too easy on himself" is all that high among them [he was pretty funny about how a ten-minute ceremony on Opening Day threw him off in his first start though actually so maybe scrap that part? or no, don't scrap it, but qualify it]). 

Oh yes also, in the middle of all of this, Vladimir Geurrero had his throwing hand stepped on on a close play at first after an offline throw Bo Bichette made but probably shouldn't have (a great effort to get in front of the ball but no chance to get the runner). As I was getting Evening Organized, so like before I had a chance to properly settle into the game, my daughter offered two Vladdy updates, maybe five minutes apart: i) Vladdy had his hand stepped on and there was blood all over his pants (it's bad) and ii) Vladdy just hit a two-run home run (come see). Two stitches, is the story, and this really does feel like it's going to be a story (front and back pages of a number of New York papers the next morning agreed).

And José Berríos looked pretty good! A whole lot better than his Opening Day start, which filled us with a great deal of sympathy (we were not mad about it). Until the back-to-back home runs to Rizzo and Judge, Berríos looked great, actually. The bullpen (Cimber, Garcia, Richards, Romano) did a fine job yet again. Vladdy ended the game catching a scorching liner with a runner on first and the tying run at the plate, as well he might. I think it's fair to say that this was the best game of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s young career, and I think it's also fair to say that he is unlikely to ever have a better one (because what would that consist of?), and so I am glad that he seemed to enjoy it as much as he did.  

KS

2022 Game Five: Yankees 4, Blue Jays 0

 

Yusei Kikuchi, I say pitch (in the mode of the great Maureen Konnyu)

We knew Yusei Kikuchi (菊池 雄星, Kikuchi Yūsei) was capable of extraordinary variability on the level of the season (an All-Star one moment, out of the rotation entirely the next), but it would seem that he is capable of a variability no less extraordinary on the level of the game, the inning, the at-bat, and quite possibly even during the brief instant during which each individual pitch is itself in flight (our people are still working on this). It's gonna be a wild ride! And I am here for it, if the results are leaping Lourdes Gurriel Jr. catches at the wall, and/or Téo throwing Josh Donaldson out at the plate under truly baffling circumstances (from a dead stop at third to a mad dash home to be out by a mile? okay cool, JD!), and four runs against (three earned) altogether on the night after a nice effort from the pen. Much attention was paid in the immediate aftermath of this game to the extent to which Kikuchi got knocked around -- and quite rightly so, as it was truly remarkable just how hard he was hit, given that the results were not, in the end, that bad -- but it really doesn't much matter anyway if the bats are this cold (five hits, only two 2-0 counts all night) against the crafty (perhaps the craftmost) lefty Nestor Cortes, does it? Ah, but if Matt Chapman had homered! I'd be all "Chapman's homer! Stout Cortez! I say 'poems,' you say 'Keats!'" and we would have had such a time together. Ah well.    

KS

2022 Game Four: Blue Jays 3, Yankees 0

 

Thro Bichette

After an opening weekend marked by a whole lot of runs (let's be honest: it was too many), what a pleasant change of pace, this (relatively) brisk affair that saw Alek Manoah yield but two hits (and four walks, which is less great) over six scoreless innings in Yankee Stadium. He looked really good! And when he didn't -- like for example when he walked three to load the bases in the third -- Bo Bichette was there to make what Ben Nicholson-Smith (I think quite rightly) characterized as the best defensive play of his young career, which you can see here. Manoah was relieved by Trevor Richards to start the seventh, and Richards did not do well, leaving two men on with one out for Adam Cimber, whom we all love. Charlie Montoyo is too often low-key assailed for some of his in-game management decisions, which I do not really think is warranted (I am old enough to remember people being awfully hard on Cito Gaston for the same thing, and I am still prickly about it). In light of this, let us be sure to note the times when his bullpen moves are unambiguously canny: a quick hook for Richards, and in comes Cimber, a groundball machine with that low arm angle, to get just the groundball Espinal and Bichette needed to turn a genuinely snazzy inning-ending double play. Leaving Cimber in for the eighth was no less fine a call than bringing him in the seventh, after which Jordan Romano set the Blue Jays team record for consecutive says, surpassing the great Tom Henke (I wonder if "The Ballad of Tom Henke" is on youtube . . . it sure is!). At the plate, a weird night, in that aside from Springer, Espinal, and Téo (who actually made quite a sliding catch in the seventh -- I hope his wrist is okay), each of whom had three hits, nobody else really did anything (Bo in particular looked lost), and there wasn't a single Blue Jays walk all night. But Springer drove in all three runs with a home run and a double (Espinal aboard in each instance), and that was that. A great first-of-four in the Bronx for Your First-Place Toronto Blue Jays!

KS

  

2022 Game Three: Rangers 12, Blue Jays 6

 

Hyun-Jin Ryu's photo from
the preschool fundraiser
(baseball day).

Of the various ways to lose a 12-6 baseball game, going up 6-1 before giving up eleven unanswered runs has to be among the worst one ones, right? And yet, we certainly derived Maximum Enjoyment from the 6-1 portion of the game, especially the four Blue Jays home runs in the first two-and-a-third innings (a leadoff Springer Dinger; new third-baseman Matt Chapman's first as a Blue Jay; young Danny Jansen's second of the season; and a profoundly monstrous Vladimir Guerrero Jr. blast that, in the old days, would have been off the top of the restaurant like 2002-batting-practice Barry Bonds), but also especially because of how Hyun-Jin Ryu was again exemplifying the extent to which he (as I have now maintained for some time) is the most interesting pitcher in Blue Jays history just to see work. And he was dealing! Until, alas, he dealt not, which came in the fourth inning (that's too soon). The six earned runs with which he was charged were trouble enough, but the bullpen, which had performed more than admirably throughout the weekend's previous twelve-and-two-thirds innings (that's too many) fared no better, really. And so the Blue Jays have tumbled from first, and now sit a full game behind Tampa Bay in the AL East with only 159 to play. It's going to be tight.

Off to Yankee Stadium, then, with Alek Manoah on the mound. Remember when he made his major-league début there last season before really anybody was going to games? And so you could totally hear his mother shouting her encouragements to him throughout? And he did great? I know I do!

One last thing I would like to note coming out of this enormously fun first weekend is that after that the big comeback on Opening Day, the broadcast point out that this was only the fourth time the Blue Jays had come back from a seven-run-deficit to win (maybe just at home? I should remember but I do not remember). And I was totally at one of those! Sunday 27 April 2003 vs. the Royals! A run in the seventh, two in the eighth, and six in the bottom of the ninth. I remember it pretty clearly, even more or less where I was sitting (524A or 524B, much more straightaway than was my true preference, but such were the vagueries and affordances of the Toronto Star Season Pass). That day's Blue Jays starting shortstop? None other than currently not-all-that-likable Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward! Greg Myers pinch-hit for him late that day, and there's no shame in that: look up 2003 Greg Myers if you haven't lately, or before; it's shocking. 

KS

2022 Game Two: Blue Jays 4, Rangers 3

 

Bo got that one, and knows that he got that one,
and would like everybody to know that he knows
that he got that one (acknowledged).

Stop me if I have mentioned this before, but for the seasons in which I attended every Blue Jays game (one time), or nearly every Blue Jays game (a couple times), I very much preferred the second home game of the season (spacious seating, low-key vibes) to the opener (crowded, drunk). On the second day of the season, pretty much every reasonable person who might like to go to a baseball game has just done so (yesterday, even), meaning the only people who head down to the ballpark on day two are the deep enthusiasts, which is how a rowdy crowd of fifty-thousand or so dwindles a day later to a bookish crew of scorekeepers and slim-radio-bringers that gets announced as fifteen thousand but look more like seven. Or so it was in yore days: this year, the second game of the season drew 43,386 people, all of whom seemed entirely there, minus Friday night's glitterati (Home Plate Lady, Geddy Lee). And they saw a good game! Robbie-Ray-replacement (Robbie Rayplacement?) Kevin Gausman gave up a pair of singles in his first inning as a Blue Jay, and three runs on eight hits (no walks) in five innings overall, but his lauded splitter looked laudable throughout and he worked pretty quickly, so let us agree that he did a good job. The Blue Jays put two runs on the board in the first (these opposite-field RBI singles Vladimir Guerrero Jr is stroking to right field are so pure), drew even in the fifth on just a fantastic Bo Bichette homer off the facing of the second deck ("That," George Springer was seen to remark, "was gross"), and scored late on Santiago Espinal's second game-winning double in as many days (Raimel Tapia scurried about the bases exactly as promised). A delight all around! The bullpen of Richards, Garcia, Mayza, and Romano allowed only one hit in four innings of work, and Romano, assisted by two pretty nifty ninth-inning plays by Bo Bichette (a Tony Fernandez sidearm flip on a charged grounder, a deft leap to snag a liner), tied Tom Henke's team record of twenty-five straight saves (Romano blew his first save opportunity last season, then nailed the next twenty-three, plus then these two to start the year, is how the math on that goes).

Hyun-Jin Ryu on the hill looking for the Sunday sweep! We will be on the couch looking for very much the same! 

KS

2022 Game One: Blue Jays 10, Rangers 8

 

Opening Té(o)

My youngest daughter was up a half-hour early Friday morning (the first thing she said to us, bursting into our room, was "It's Opening Day!"), and my oldest semi-grumbled off to bed a half-hour late Friday night. Between that beginning and that end, there had been much excitement (Big League Chew after school, hot dogs for supper, a slightly cobbled-together peanuts and cracker jack[esque] situation for dessert) and a good deal of disappointment (the first three-and-a-half innings of opening day actual). But once the Blue Jays bats got it together, and the boys truly began to bop (we heard noise, and that's what it was), José Berríos' baffling and deeply sympathetic third-of-an-inning outing (the shortest of his fine young career, it goes without saying) felt more like something we'd heard about one time than something that had happened like an hour ago. There's no real question that, by the end of it, this was the best Opening Day in Blue Jays history: the biggest Opening Day comeback in Major League Baseball since 1950, and before that 1901, in what was the very first game played by the Detroit Tigers (R.I.P. Neil Bulson). Things felt pretty grim down by seven, for sure, but all it took was a fairly low-key three runs in the fourth (Springer in on Vladdy's single, Bichette on Lourdes Gurriel's groundout, and Vladdy himself tagging up on [Short King] Alejandro Kirk's sac fly to left) for it to feel very much like a baseball game (of the non-crushing variety [the crushing kind also feels like a baseball game, honestly; this was poor phrasing]). The four runs that followed in the fifth were much louder, especially the three that came on Teoscar Hernandez's rocket to right field on a 98MPH fastball just after Vladdy had brought Springer home again on no less a rocket to right but one that lacked Téo's elevation, in this instance. It was quite a moment! Seven runs in two innings to tie it up, and allow Berríos' to have at least a somewhat okay time of it at the end of the dugout. The eighth was weird, in that Bo Bichette, who had been caught stealing just once last season (in twenty-six attempts, and you may recall that he actually should have been called safe that one time at third) got caught leaning the wrong way on a 3-2 count and was picked very much off first base, upon review. No matter, though: the next review, when the time came, confirmed that yes, Téo had indeed raced all the way around from first on a Lourdes Gurriel double to slide in just ahead of the tag at the plate, making for just a lovely night for him all around (a nice running catch in right, too!). Danny Jansen's solo home run in the eighth, though not strictly speaking necessary, was entirely welcome, and made the ninth much more pleasant (also did I mention that he too raced around to score from first on a double earlier? it's not that it's all that uncommon, but when a catcher does it, it seems like a thing to note). Gurriel's sliding ninth-inning grab in the corner was the defensive play of the night, but what about Vladdy's nice little running, over-the-shoulder grabs at first? And the way he smiles after he makes them, as though four-hundred-and-fifty-foot home runs are pretty good, but what we might really enjoy is catching a baseball sometimes? (He's right; it's tremendous.) And Matt Chapman, though he was really the only Blue Jay not to do anything at the plate (the bulked-up Espinal did a good job coming in for Biggio!), still looked like Matt Chapman at third, ranging all over the place, and making life easy for Bo (whose æstethic grows ever more "outrun" by the day). This really could all work!

And for all Berríos had a miserable start, how about the bullpen: Saucedo got dinged for a pair, Thornton allowed a run in two innings of work, even Cimber gave up a home run late (he usually doesn't give up home runs ever, so imagine our surprise), and not a single Blue Jays pitcher recorded a strike out until Romano's pair of them in the ninth (that's really weird), but eight-and-two-thirds is as much as you're ever going to ask of a bullpen (it's mathematically tough to ask for more!) and scoreless innings from Stripling, Merryweather, Garcia, and Jordon Romano (who really could get a lot of saves this year, for anybody out there who is still into saves) are all totally encouraging.  

A wild one! And it would be hard for any game to top it the rest of the way, honestly. That could easily end up being the game of the year. But just in case, let's do it all again tomorrow, and then pretty much every other day for sixth months or so, and see where it takes us, maybe?

KS

Baseball Simulators: Are Baseball Feelings Simulators

In late August of last year, I began a long and peculiar Baseball Mogul game (saved as "Carlos Delgado 2001 til the end"), the highlights of which I shared with friends through my Twitter account. It turned out to be kind of neat! Or it was received, at least, as having been neat. On this, the eve of the only slightly delayed start of the 2022 Major League Baseball season (let's go), I thought it might be similarly neat to post those highlights here as well. I would like to dedicate what follows, such as it is, to the memory of our friend Neil Bulson, who passed earlier this year, and who loved baseball, and baseball feelings, and the strangely powerful baseball feelings that can (and often do) arise from modest computer simulations thereof. Neil and I had a lot of fun with a lot of things over the many years of our friendship, but one thing we returned to often was our shared love of the 1980s AL East baseball of our childhoods, his Detroit Tigers of Allan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, and my Toronto Blue Jays of Tony Fernandez and Jesse Barfield. Neil seemed to always have a Baseball Mogul game on the go, but curiously, for all that he was a person often intensely focused on the past, he tended to sim decades into the future until the game and its players were completely untethered from the primary world of our experience, so that he might be subsumed utterly by the fiction of it all. Neil was very engaged with and encouraging of the silliness I have assembled here, and I associate the whole thing very much with him. Thanks, Neil.

KS 

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Aug 30, 2021

the premise: what if when I moved to Toronto exactly twenty years ago it was not to go to grad school but instead to run the Toronto Blue Jays and, crucially, be friends with Carlos Delgado

Aug 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul 2001 transaction notes: the Blue Jays have acquired Tony Fernandez from the Brewers from Chris Latham, & Vladimir Guerrero (père) from the Montréal Expos for pitching prospects David Purcey, Casey Janssen, Jesse Carlson, Coco Pasquel, & cash considerations ($4.5m)  

Aug 31, 2021

Raul Mondesi, whose contract makes him literally untradeable in this game ("People complain about the Yankees," J.P. Ricciardi was like when NY actually took on Mondesi, "but what would you do without them?") has been converted to 3B 

hey: he's got the arm for it

Aug 31, 2021

I am determined to keep Baseball Mogul Raul Mondesi, unlike IRL Raul Mondesi, out of prison

Aug 31, 2021

"After baseball, Mondesí began a career in politics [. . .]. In 2010, he became mayor of San Cristóbal in the Dominican Republic, serving a six-year term. In 2017, Mondesí was sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption charges based from his time in office as mayor.[1]"

Aug 31, 2021

waaaaaaait a minute, why aren't we calling Vladimir Guerrero Sr. "Dadimir Guerrero" or have we been doing this and I just missed it? either way, who is with me

Sep 4, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: Mondesi hit well enough that Boston was willing to have him; traded Shannon Stewart to the Mariners for Brett Tomko and Arthur Rhodes but 2001 Rhodes, improbably, pitched horribly, & has since moved on; miracle season from Ravelo Manzanillo. I am like .500.

Sep 5, 2021

2001 Baseball Mogul update: traded for 42yo Rickey Henderson, who went 1-2 w/ 3BB in his second game (he's still got it!); Darrin Fletcher leads the AL with a 1.016 OPS (.332/.395/.621); Joey Votto has been drafted. I am like .500.

Sep 9, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the 2001 Blue Jays finish 87-75; 35yo Darrin Fletcher hits .317/.384/.567 to lead the AL in both OPS (.951) and WAR (6.8 [tied with Pedro Martinez]); Halladay wins 18; David Wells gets brutally owned by the headline generator; 9/11 seemingly does not occur

Sep 14, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: congratulations to the 2001 WS Champion Oakland Athletics

also I have realized to truly prove what a friend I am to Carlos Delgado I must, at potentially ruinous expense, reunite him with his dear friend Shawn Green

then we will all be friends together

Sep 17, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the 2002 Baseball Mogul Blue Jays are in the thick of the Wild Card with about fifteen games to go much as the 2021 Primary World of Our Experience Blue Jays so I am getting basically no break from worry and care

Sep 18, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the 87-win 2002 Blue Jays are eliminated from WC contention with a 10th-inning October 2nd loss to Cleveland, bases loaded groundout Frank Menechino (not upset at Frank, he had some huge hits down the stretch); Roy Halladay missed months with a broken leg

Sep 18, 2021

gonna make a real push to break the 90-win barrier and also prove to Carlos Delgado that I am not jealous of his bond with Shawn Green but instead support their friendship and mb we could all go to Kensington Market for empanadas next weekend there's a great place there

Sep 24, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: massive turnover, tiny payroll, but the Carlos Delgado-led '03 Blue Jays are in first place in August by a half-game & our friendship is thriving; Shawn Green had to be traded but Carlos is a professional, he gets it, he is here to win, and to be my friend.

Sep 24, 2021

I was thinking about how if you got there early enough to watch the Blue Jays warm up in '03 you would see Carlos Delgado and Orlando Hudson having the loveliest long toss, like the nicest game of catch you would ever hope to see.

Sep 24, 2021

also I love it when the mad-libs seems of Baseball Mogul show a lil bit

Sep 26, 2021

Baseball Mogul update

Sep 26, 2021

tfw you contribute significantly to a squeaker

Sep 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the 2003 Toronto Blue Jays (93-69) secure their first AL East title in a decade with a win in Fenway Park on the last day of the season (the Red Sox finish 92-70, good for the WC)

Sep 27, 2021

upon our return to "T-Dot" (it is not yet "the six") Carlos Delgado and I discuss the contours of the season, and of our deepening friendship, at one of the Queen West sushi places that are nicer than the Bloor West sushi places & yet not so nice that they are not still low-key

Sep 27, 2021

it occurs to me that if the year is 2003, Shigeru Fukuyama aka Chef Shige has not yet moved to Halifax and is still of Toronto when not in Japan; Carlos and I will seek him out, and then there will be three of us

Sep 27, 2021

your 2003 AL East Champion Toronto Blue Jays

mybeautifulboys.jpg

Sep 27, 2021

tfw yr three-for-four with a double, a walk, two runs scored, and two RBIs takes yr Blue Jays one step closer to the ALCS

Sep 27, 2021

a disturbing scouting report on Jason Frasor, who has been a valued arm out of <<l'enclos des releveurs>> all season long

Sep 28, 2021

Baseball Mogul: on the strength of Carlos Delgado's .636/.667/.818 (that's a 1.485 OPS) and Shawn Marcum's Game 4 five-hitter we are thru to the ALCS; Carlos and I are getting memberships at the Bloor because one of our favourite hobbies is watching old movies together

Sep 28, 2021

Mama Rosa? The fellow with the suspenders? The guy who looked like Alan Alda? They are all so happy to see Carlos Delgado at their wonderful old theatre, among the last of its kind. Even by 2003 it felt like it wouldn't be much longer.

Oct 1, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the 93-win '03 Blue Jays go up 3-1 in the ALCS but lose to the Red Sox in the the tenth inning of game seven; had bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth but nothing, Carlos Delgado (my friend) stood powerless at second base

Oct 1, 2021

20yo Joey Votto is called up to start the 2004 season and suggests to Carlos and me that if we really like old movies, we should check out Reg Hartt's Cineforum; we do, and are alarmed to see it is just Reg Hartt's living room in an old house on Bathurst; Votto grins knowingly

Oct 7, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: following their 93-win, ALCS Game Seven 7 2003 season, the 2004 Blue Jays see all of our high-priced talent play poorly or get hurt (not Carlos, he's still cool)) in the first half and so a Yung Lionz movement takes shape (not Carlos, he's still cool)

Oct 7, 2021

the highlight of our 85-win 2004 season for almost no money is yung Joey Votto's AL ROTY award (his OBP was like .400); we celebrate at XO Karaoke Box on Bloor at Euclid

Oct 7, 2021

a couple hours in, Carlos Delgado and I hit the bakery across the street to grab some 호두과자 hodu-gwaja for tha boiz but come back with twice as many walnut cakes as we planned on getting cuz that's just how crazy things get when we're together

Oct 8, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: thirty-six games (25W-11L) into our "all-in" 2005 season, Carlos Delgado and I turn down the Cardinals offer of Alex Rodriguez for not very much cuz we are getting better production at SS out of an Oscar Robles/Placido Polanco platoon also we don't like him

Oct 12, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: the Cardinals, weighed down by the A-Rod deal and in utter disarray, offer Young Pueto Rican King Yadier Molina for not that much (yes plz); Carlos Delgado's little mood-meter thing in the top right corner of his player profile looks like this (mine too!)

Oct 13, 2021

Baseball Mogul update: unlike the 2005 Toronto Blue Jays of the primary world of our experience, a Delgado-less squad of but 80 wins, the 2005 Carlos-is-My-Pal Baseball Mogul Blue Jays win a franchise-best 100 games; 18yo rookie Hyun-Jin Ryu helps us order at Ka Chi (delicious)

Oct 13, 2021

Baseball Mogul: after sweeping the O's, the 2005 Carlos-is-My-Pal Blue Jays fall in the ALCS to the 100-win Angels, fresh off their acquisition of . . . Alex Rodriguez. Carlos and I stand by our refusal of him all the same, & are happy to have played in October once more. Onward!

Oct 13, 2021

Baseball Mogul: we had the AL Cy Young (Ted Lilly), the AL MVP (Andy Barkett! lol I love it!), won a hundred games, and yet my shit, much like Billy Beane's famously before mine, does not work in the playoffs. Such is "the game"; who is next to play; (me and Carlos actually).

Oct 15, 2021

Baseball Mogul: it is the spring of 2006 and I am wed; Carlos Delgado's gift is tasteful and modest, his embrace warm and generous; we have traded for Pedro Martinez and are the best team in baseball.

Oct 16, 2021

Baseball Mogul: it is the early summer of 2006; Torii Hunter & B.J. Ryan have been added at considerable prospect-expense (note: prospects are a fake idea) as we go close to all-in; Shawn Marcum has three weeks to figure it out or he will be flipped for Jake Arietta

Oct 16, 2021

Baseball Mogul: listen Shawn Marcum I respect you as a fellow human just trying to be happy but I have traded both Roy Halladay & Chris Carpenter & if you think I will not trade you for Jake Arietta just ask Carlos Delgado who has been by my side thru it all

Oct 18, 2021

Baseball Mogul. 2006. Joey Votto tells us about a show he heard about from an old high school friend from Etobicoke. It is at Clinton's on Bloor West, an improbable venue for anything notable in any way, but Joey insists his old friend would know because "he's an interesting guy"

Oct 18, 2021

Carlos and I arrive at Clinton's to join a sparse crowd of people who will, once it is invented in a year's time, be on Tumblr; but they are in a profound sense "of" Tumblr already; they are Tumblrists <<avant la lettre>>; it is stunning; they are stunning.

Oct 18, 2021

This is how Carlos Delgado & I improbably attend the first Crystal Castles show together. After two songs, he leans in with a broad smile. "This is pretty crazy. But you can dance to it!" He offers no other comment until the very end: "I don't think that girl's ok."

Oct 18, 2021

Joey Votto never shows.

Oct 20, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2006 Blue Jays produce another Cy Young winner (Ricky Romero) and MVP (Brandon Moss) but lose game 163; on 6/23/06 Carlos and I attend the final Kung Fu Friday (Crippled Avengers) at the Royal Cinema; we feel the city slipping away from us, piece by piece.

Oct 23, 2021

Baseball Mogul: an injury-plagued '07 sees eight pitchers on the IL at the same time (eight!) as the Blue Jays plummet to 75 wins; Carlos Delgado, following the model set forth in the Nicomachean Ethics, derives pleasure from the philosophical contemplation of this misfortune

Oct 26, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the '08 Blue Jays survive a rash of pitching injuries and a complete re-install (backup your .mog files everybody!) and ride a 13-game winning streak to serious contention; C.C. Sabathia suffers a "fractured eye bone" but will miss but a month (what a gamer)

Oct 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the comment "His age won't hinder him yet" is added to the auto-generated scouting report/player card of 36-year-old-All-Star (DH) Carlos Delgado, whose triple slash line is 289/348/460, but whose true triple slash line is That/Doom/Abides (so say we all)

Oct 30, 2021

Baseball Mogul: as Carlos Delgado (3.9 WAR in his age-36 season) enters the October of his career, so to do the 96-win '08 Blue Jays enter the October of, like, the Gregorian calendar: a three-game sweep of the Yankees; a crushing, seventh-game, one-run loss to the White Sox.

Oct 30, 2021

Baseball Mogul CORRECTION: I went back and checked and Carlos Delgado in fact posted a 4.5-win season in '08; that I regret the error is too obvious to even bear mentioning

Nov 3, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the '09 Blue Jays have gotten younger and faster; by contrast each new utterance of the scouting report generator has become a memento mori

Nov 3, 2021

Baseball Mogul: '09 Carlos Delgado has broken his foot and is out for forty days (a number of biblical significances); '09 Jacob DeGrom, for whom I have traded, will miss the next four-hundred with a rotator cuff problem; this may not be "our year"

Nov 5, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2009 Toronto Blue Jays are a third-place, 84-win team, which falls below Carlos Delgado's expectations, but he is so adult about it that you would never even guess.

Nov 5, 2021

Baseball Mogul: It is April 5, 2010. In the first game played in Minnesota's beautiful new ballpark, thirty-seven-year-old Carlos Delgado, entering his eighteenth major-league season, hits a home run to the yet-to-be-dismantled pines. Blue Jays 5, Twins 1.

(photo courtesy Jay Jaffe when he was still "The Futility Infielder")

Nov 12, 2021

Baseball Mogul: thirty-eight-year-old Carlos Delgado, in a reduced <<rôle>>, nevertheless contributes 1.2WAR to the 93-win, 2010 AL East Champion Toronto Blue Jays, whose rotation is so profoundly injured heading in the postseason that we are all resigned to what lies ahead

Nov 12, 2021

Baseball Mogul: this is me, playing baseball mogul

Nov 13, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the year is 2011. Thirty-eight-year-old Carlos Delgado plays his way out of a reduced <<rôle>> (pinch hitter, Joey Votto's backup) & back into the everyday lineup with a 1.000+ OPS. He is nearly as old now as I have grown in the primary world of our experience

Nov 19, 2021

Baseball Mogul: "About all Delgado can give you now," the automatically generated scouting report argues, "is fond memories." And while we share many, Carlos and I, through our now decade+ of friendship, let us also consider 2011's 1.4 WAR in fewer than 300 plate appearances.

Nov 19, 2021

Baseball Mogul: with far fewer playing days ahead of him than behind, thirty-eight-year-old Carlos Delgado's asks if might again don the catcher's gear for an inning or two, just for old time's sake. This turns into 81 innings worth 0.2 DWAR. And he threw a guy out!

Nov 19, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 90-win 2011 Toronto Blue Jays would have glided into the second AL Wild Card spot, were it to have existed; alas that it will not come to be until another season has passed. Happily, thirty-nine-year-old Carlos Delgado has signed on for another summer.

Nov 19, 2021

Baseball Mogul: I invite you to behold the utter madness of thirty-eight-year-old Carlos Delgado's defensive 2011; please note that the innings at SS, 2B, and CF are the result of pinch-hitting/substitution mishaps for which Carlos is blameless and yet look look look

Nov 22, 2021

Baseball Mogul: May 24, 2012. Pinch-hitter/back-up catcher (that's right) Carlos Delgado hits a two-run, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 14th against Baltimore. I proceed to the next day without first saving that result; the program crashes; lost in time/tears in the rain.

Nov 29, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 84-win 2012 Blue Jays finish in a three-way tie for the newly-minted 2nd AL Wild Card spot but do not get a chance to play a game-163 because like OOTP, Baseball Mogul does not handle three-way ties in accordance with MLB practices; Carlos Delgado smiles wryly

Nov 29, 2021

Baseball Mogul: a useful left-handed bat off the bench and a "plus" defender at catcher (!!!), 39yo Carlos Delgado produces significant value as measured both in dWAR (defensive Wins Above Replacement) and dWAReltC (dignified Wisdom Above Replacement, everybody listen to Carlos)

Dec 3, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays are 51-30 at the exact halfway point of their season; they proceed to lose their next five straight. Forty-one-year-old Carlos Delgado, who has seen it all, abides.

Dec 7, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 86-win 2013 Blue Jays miss the 2nd WC on the last day of the season; 41-year-old Carlos Delgado remains a "plus" defender off the bench (236 innings at C, 56 innings at 1B); he takes a keen interest in young Teoscar José Hernández (CF), whomst he shall guide.

Dec 7, 2021

Baseball Mogul: entering the final year of his contract, Carlos Delgado is offered, and graciously accepts, a five-year extension that will see him remain a Blue Jay through his age-forty-six season in 2019. He stands at 81.6 career WAR (this is more than, say, Rod Carew).

Dec 7, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2014 Blue Jays sign SS/Utility Infielder 川﨑 宗則 Kawasaki Munenori to a two-year contract and apologize to Kawasaki and indeed to all people of the earth for not having done so sooner.

Dec 8, 2021

Baseball Mogul: in his first ten games with the 2014 Blue Jays, shortstop 川﨑 宗則 Kawasaki Munenori hits .376/.676/1.054 with 4HR. "And the thing about him," Carlos Delgado tells all who will listen, "is he's a character."

Dec 14, 2021

Baseball Mogul: it is summer 2014 and what was once "T-dot" is now truly "The Six": no less than half the roster selects Drake for walk-up music. But Carlos Delgado, a man of both his land and of the old ways, sticks with Daddy Yankee's "Rompe" (2005).

Dec 14, 2021

Baseball Mogul: also "The Six"? The number of starting pitchers I have on the injured list! That's so many of them!

Dec 22, 2021

Baseball Mogul: on the 2nd-last day of a largely lost 2014 season, 42yo-part-time catcher (1.0WAR!) Carlos Delgado knocks in the winning run in the bottom of the 12th on what turns out to be a broken tibia to end his 22nd big league season. "See you next summer," he winks.

Dec 22, 2021

Baseball Mogul: at the behest of his countryman Carlos Delgado, the Blue Jays move heaven & earth (& Gerrit Cole) to acquire 6'5" 275lbs switch-hitting 1B/DH Kennys Vargas. "He's a big kid," Carlos says. "And he can hit." Vargas goes .368/.500/.645 (6HR) in April. We are 15-6.

Dec 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: June 21st. Forty-three-year-old backup-catcher Carlos Delgado hits a first-pitch fastball for a sac fly to bring home Carlos Moncrief & walk off the Orioles 5-4 in the 10th. "A few years ago, that one might have left the yard," Carlos smiles. "I'll still take it."

Dec 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: Joey Votto is out three weeks with a shoulder separation. His replacement, 島袋涼平 Ryohei Shimabukuro, hits for such power that he can't just go back to the bench once Votto returns. "Let's make him a catcher," Carlos Delgado offers. "I can help him." It works.

Dec 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2015 Blue Jays season stands at an MLB-best 73-33 in August; from here, things can end only in either mild relief at a year unblown or in bitter disappointment. Oh to be a .500 team four games back of the 2nd Wild Card . . .

Dec 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: that Carlos Delgado's 0.2WAR has been integral to this half-season-plus of nearly .700 baseball is self-evident but think too of his crucial rôle in the development of young lions Kennys Vargas (4.4WAR) and 島袋涼平 Ryohei Shimabukuro (2.4WAR). Think too. Of it.

Dec 27, 2021

Baseball Mogul: These truly are some Top Stories (79W-33L, .705)

Dec 28, 2021

Baseball Mogul: 9/4/2015. 16C, wind 14KPH (out to left). A Friday-night crowd of 47,118 watches third-string catcher Carlos Delgado drive a first-pitch fastball into the right-field corner to plate two and tie Cleveland six-all in the 10th. Votto homers in the 11th. 92W-41L.

Dec 29, 2021

Baseball Mogul: a team-record 14-game winning streak gives the 2015 Blue Jays a 23-4 September, a 112-50 season, and the AL East by a ludicrous margin. Carlos Delgado enters his fifth postseason, & knows well it could be his last. "His fate hovered near, unknowable but certain."

Dec 30, 2021

BBMogul: in neither the primary world of our experience nor the secondary realms of subcreation do I have the constitution to truly enjoy Blue Jays playoff baseball; the weight of it, emotionally, is too much for me to bear; I do not seek it so much as endure it when it happens

Dec 30, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2015 Blue Jays defeat the 93-win Red Sox in five games; Carlos Delgado catches the first innings of Game One and the final inning of Game Five whilst, in between, ALDS MVP/Carlos-protégé 島袋涼平 Shimabukuro Ryōhei (C) hits .474 with 3HR.

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: the 2015 Blue Jays hold the great Mike Trout to a single, a lone walk, a triple, & an empty late-inning solo HR in a five-game ALCS win over the 98-win Angels. Forty-three year-old backup-catcher Carlos Delgado approaches his first World Series as a man of focus.

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: To "keep things lose" as the Blue Jays prepare for the 2015 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Joey Votto unearths a Toronto Star article from March 15, 1992: "Young catcher Carlos Delgado a star in Blue Jays’ future."

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: "Delgado is 19 years old," Joey Votto reads aloud, "a sweet-faced giant who is heralded as the Toronto catcher of the future. While he hits for power, the talent scouts are salivating over his throwing arm."

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: Votto savours this part especially: "'I usually throw it right on the base,' Delgado concedes, but only when pushed to sing his own praises. 'Catching is considered a defensive position. If you can hit, that’s an extra.'" The clubhouse erupts. The vibe is perfect.

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: A reporter asks Carlos Delgado how it feels to finally be this close to a World Series ring after so many long seasons. "I've had one since '93," he answers almost brusquely. "Two games that year. Two at-bats. But they sent me a ring."

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: Game Six, SkyDome, bottom 10th. Two away. Nobody on. As 43yo third-string catcher Carlos Delgado straps on the gear to take the field for the top of the 11th, 24yo rookie Rymer Liriano drives a first-pitch fastball over the right field fence. TOR 5, PHI 4 (F/10).

Dec 31, 2021

Baseball Mogul: A reporter asks Carlos Delgado if this is it, a ring in 1993, another in 2015 to bookend his (81.8WAR) career. "Maybe," he smiles. "Maybe." Another notes that he's only five hits from 2500. The smile broadens. "Sounds like another summer."

Jan 4

Baseball Mogul: Carlos Delgado's 2500th career hit (that's just so many) comes as a pinch-hit double on my sixth wedding anniversary. We are an AL-best 57-34 at the break behind weirdly great Canadian starting pitching (Harden 14-1, 2.22ERA, Paxton 12-2, 2.74ERA). Let's. Go.

Jan 8

Baseball Mogul: the 600th double of Carlos Delgado's twenty-four-year career comes Sept 1st, 2016. The ALDS brings the 100-win Blue Jays the 94-win Texas Rangers, who, in the primary world of our experience, have lost six-straight playoff games to Toronto. Let's. Just. See.

Jan 8

Baseball Mogul: the promise of Drake's "Back to Back" (played extensively all summer just like you'd think) goes unrealized as the 2016 Blue Jays fall in the 13th-inning of ALDS Game Three. "That's baseball," is all the wizened Delgado can offer in explanation. "Just baseball."

Jan 8

Baseball Mogul: changes loom <<pendant la saison morte" as payroll has grown as you might expect to sustain back-to-back 100-win seasons in the AL East; Carlos Delgado, though, his earnings-most years behind him, is content with a couple million a summer to third-string-catch.

Jan 9

Baseball Mogul: in the primary world of our experience, Robbie Ray wins the 2021 AL Cy Young as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays; in this secondary world of subcreation, he has done so in 2016. In these as in all other realms, his pants run exquisitely tight.

Jan 12

Baseball Mogul: June 7, 2017. The Injury Bug Hits Toronto's Catcher.

Jan 12

Baseball Mogul: July 5, 2017. Yankee Stadium. In a wild 18-12 Blue Jays win, 川﨑 宗則 Kawasaki Munenori goes five-for-five with a walk, a home run, and six RBI in six plate appearances from the number nine spot. Everyone is happy, because everyone treasures him.

Jan 14

Baseball Mogul: July 6, 2017. Taijuan Walker pitches only the second no-hitter in Blue Jays history (Dave Steib, 1990). The injured Carlos Delgado, asked if he wishes he'd been out there to catch it, laughs. "Of course, but I'm happy for [Carlos' protégé] Ryhoei [Shimabukuro]."

Jan 14

Baseball Mogul: in limited (some might say nurturing) appearances, nineteen-year-old SS/2B Bo Bichette rakes utterly against left-handed pitching. Same-sided will come in time. "These major-league sliders are no joke," he rightly observes. Vladdy Guerrero Jr. has been drafted.

Jan 14

Baseball Mogul: August 28, 2017. In front of a crowd of 49 282, Carlos Delgado singles through a drawn-in infield to give the Blue Jays their first run in a 5-1 win over the Red Sox.  After a months-long chase, the Blue Jays (82-49) lead the AL East by a game (by this game).

Jan 16

Baseball Mogul: the 103-win 2017 Blue Jays take their third-straight AL East title but fall to the Angels in the DS (so it goes). Young Nick Heath joins the 31/111 Club in that he hits 31 HR & steals 111 bases. "It's crazy," backup catcher Carlos Delgado notes of this great feat.

Jan 22

Baseball Mogul: the 2018 Blue Jays trail the Red Sox by a game and a half at the All-Star break. Young Nick Heath has 103 SB and is poised to make a run (wordplay) at the single-season record. Forty-six-year-old backup catcher Carlos Delgado is 4th all time in games played.

Jan 22

Baseball Mogul: now that Carlos Delgado and I are older we don't see each other outside of work as much but it's okay because work is like 162 times a year.

Jan 26

Baseball Mogul: 2018. A 4th-straight 100-win AL East title. ALDS loss. Manuel Margot manages a below-average season (1.3WAR) despite 100SB; Nick Heath fares better (5.4WAR) on 170 SB (hey that's a record!) on 210 attempts (that too!) and 31HR. Carlos abides.

Jan 26

Baseball Mogul: Four seasons of massive revenues (league-leading! our ticket prices are not fan-friendly!) and massive payrolls (league-leading! gotta support tha boiz!) reach their end when I receive a payroll budget unconducive to this approach. It is out of my hands. And so...

Jan 26

...all but the most beloved veterans (Carlos Delgado, Joey Votto, Ryohei Shimabukuro) and most promising youngsters (Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cy Young winner Jose Fernandez [R.I.P. to him in the primary world of our experience]) are gone; a 2019 clearing of the decks.

Jan 26

Baseball Mogul: forty-six-year-old Carlos Delgado enters 2019 on the final year of what he has decided will be his final contract. I too weary of the chase. We both miss the ocean. "The lake is great," Carlos says wistfully. "But it's not the ocean." One last summer.

Jan 26

Baseball Mogul: I slash ticket prices. I reintroduce the Toronto Star Season Pass. Some argue this is akin to sanctioning murder. I say let it play out.

Jan 26

Baseball Mogul: the 2019 Toronto Blue Jays, with a payroll $10 million less than Oakland, are projected for 52 wins but I think we are an interesting young team with a rotation full of "bounce-back candidates"! For example, 34yo Tim Lincecum's 1st start is a 4-hit complete game.

Jan 28

Baseball Mogul: April 4, 2019. Young Vladimir Guerrero Jr. & Bo Bichette spark both a 9th-inning rally to steal a game in Cleveland and joy in the hearts of all who behold them. "You watch these kids play," Carlos Delgado says, "and you fall in love with baseball all over again."

Jan 28

Baseball Mogul: though younger than Bo Bichette's father, Carlos Delgado is a few years older than Vladdy's. "It's crazy," Carlos notes.

Feb 3

Baseball Mogul: by the trade deadline, the 4th-place '19 Blue Jays have the lowest payroll (by a bit)& highest-rated farm system (by a lot) in either league. All that remains of what was are hometown hero Joey Votto, & Carlos Delgado for one last summer (of baseball [he's fine]).

Feb 5

Baseball Mogul: September 23, 2019. Carlos Delgado gets the start at first base to open the final homestand of his twenty-seventh season. In the bottom of the sixth, he rips a two-RBI double to the gap. The 4th-place Blue Jays defeat the 5th-place Orioles 5-2.

Feb 5

Baseball Mogul: September 29, 2019. The 3124th game of Carlos Delgado's career is his last. Four innings at catcher, four innings at first, before he is replaced in the top of the ninth in the way you do to give the crowd a chance to applaud. They do.

Feb 5

Baseball Mogul: Both Carlos Delgado and I remain steadfast in our desire to return to our respective Atlantic coasts so that our respective children can be from them but we cheerfully agree to "stay on" as Special Assistants to my hand-picked successor, the poet Carson Cistulli.

Feb 5

Baseball Mogul: "I always said I would try to return until my body had enough. And my body could take no more. There comes a moment when you have to have the dignity and the sense to recognize that something is not functioning. You can't swim against the current."

Feb 5

Baseball Mogul: The above are Carlos Delgado's parting words in both the primary world of our experience and in the secondary world of subcreation in which we have dwelt since 8/30/21 in the former, 3/1/01 in the latter. Thank you for your attention to this matter throughout.

Feb 5

For more on Carlos Delgado, and specifically on my feelings regarding Carlos Delgado, eleven years ago I wrote a piece called "Had I mentioned previously that Carlos Delgado is my favourite baseball player?" very much on that theme.

EPILOGUE: The Poet Carson Cistulli signed Freddie Freeman and the Blue Jays won the World Series immediately, which is to say: another ring for Special Assistant to the Poet Carson Cistulli Carlos Delgado (this is what his letterhead says).