2022 Game Forty-Four: Blue Jays 6, Angels 2

look at the light though

hey Vladdy got another one

The Blue Jays had gone all month without a three-home-run game, and now they have two in as many nights, most recently against Shohei Ohtani, and not because he was all that off that mark: Ohtani struck out ten and walked only one in his six innings of work, and only allowed six hits; it's just that those hits just kind of went and went. Vladdy's first-inning fly out to deep left actually seemed like more trouble (I mean, not for me) off the bat than the actual homer he later ripped off the foul pole (more like the fair pole -- right, people?), although perhaps that is because George Springer's leadoff home run had preconditioned us to expect further first-inning trouble (I mean, not for me). Of the three dingers dung on this uncommonly beautiful evening (the way the sun kept finding Shohei Ohtani was ridiculous), the one that I find the most striking is Danny Jansen's. He's just been unreal! I read today that if you take his last one-hundred at-bats, going back to last season (as he has been hurt a lot this year), he's actually been the best hitter in baseball over that period, which is a wild notion. You'd think that it might be Mike Trout, who is having an emphatically great year so far after a few that were beneath his (nearly peerless) standard, but no. Oh hey, on Trout: of every pitcher Mike Trout has ever faced in his career ten times or more, the only one against whom he has not had a base hit is Hyun-Jin Ryu. How about that! In fact, coming into last night's game, he'd only hit it out of the infield against Ryu twice. Twice! And sure enough, Mike Trout, who would be a legitimate first-ballot Hall of Famer if he retired today, at thirty years old, went oh-for-four on the night, and left three on base. Hyun-Jin Ryu: still foolin' em. 

Anyway, this one was a complete delight, and even had a neat "did the runner jogging home touch home plate before the inning-ending tag-play at second base, or ever-so-slightly after" moment, which was very pleasing. As the 10:38PM start time was awfully late for us as a squad (even I fell asleep with the radio on in the seventh), a next-day screening of Blue Jays in Thirty proved vital, and while most (though not all) of us enjoyed it over moon mist ice cream in waffle cones, it seemed like maybe the best Blue Jays in Thirty ever, maybe? Just a premium situation all around.

KS