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