2022 Game Forty-Seven: Blue Jays 11, Angels 10

 

he did this twice

We sat down to this one just in time to watch Shohei Ohtani hit is first home run of the game; we must have been eating when he hit his second. This twenty-one-run game, that saw José Berríos chased in the third, and the Blue Jays explore dark corners of their bullpen best left unconsidered, in a sense exceeded all previously known things and ways, and yet was somehow familiar in its ramshackle endlessness(es). I don't know how many lead changes there were (it sure seemed like a lot!), but it was Bo Bichette's game-tying solo home run in the top of the eighth off of Ryan Tepera (remember him?) that made me think we might win this one for the first time since I super hubristically claimed that we had swept the series when the Blue Jays went up 6-2 in a four-run third (Apollo, friend, Apollo, he it was that brought these ills to pass; but the right hand that dealt the blow was mine, none other). Somehow amidst everything that happened, the Blue Jays managed to keep Mike Trout off the bases entirely (oh-for-five), which is maybe the wildest thing that happened all day, aside from it being David Phelps who was on the mound in the ninth to pick up the save (needless to say, his first of the year [hey Adam Cimber is 6-2 now, tied with Justin Verlander for the AL lead in wins]). I think my favourite moment in the game came approximately nine hours in, when, in the top of eighth, Vladimir Guerrero came up as a pinch hitter with the go-ahead run on second (Kirk had doubled) and a base open. Angels manager Joe Madden could be seen trying to get his pitcher's (maybe catcher's?) attention, yelling "Hey. Hey! Hey!" and then making a like a pointy-pointy motion. Joe Madden couldn't believe that nobody knew what that meant, or seemingly that he even had to communicate this obvious course of action, and was eventually reduced to just straight up shouting out "WALK HIM" (whereas my view is "pitch to Vladdy with a base open and the go-ahead run on second, you cowards" but I appreciate that our interests in this are not identical). Just a great big wild mess of a game, and a tonne of fun. Four game sweeps are rare things, and each must be savoured, but I did particularly enjoy these for games at Angels stadium, with the Japanese ads reminiscent of what, to me, will forever be the "dandy-house.co.jp" era of Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui; the Bandai-Namco ads with the little baseball caps on Pac-Man and one of the ghosts (I can never keep them straight, despite their cinematic introduction); and just the sheer facts of Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. I would like to close today with a picture of Bo Bichette hitting his home run, and then several pictures of how Vladdy and Shohei Ohtani are friends. Thank you as always for your time.  

KS