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