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| oh good Vladdy scooped it oh good |
Even if Matt Chapman never really hit at all, there would still be two or three times every game that you felt really, really glad he was your third baseman, hoovering everything up over there and making absurd throws without ever stopping to set his feet. There is a great deal to be enjoyed in that. But also last night a homer! In a tight game! And why, one might reasonably ask, was the game itself tight? Because of the effortless pitching of Yusei Kikuchi, I would reply light-heartedly, because holy hell that guy has to work hard out there for everything, doesn't he? Like he is a lefty who can throw it a million miles an hour, that is his gift, and you might think that would be enough, but no, every inning, every batter, seemingly every pitch is a genuine battle for that guy, and he is so open and demonstrative (though not in a showy way, if that makes sense? like it never feels like a performance) that you cannot help but feel for him every moment he comes up short and share in his joy when things go, not even great, but even just okay. He is the anti-Hyun-Jin Ryu, in a sense, in that although Ryu is all smiles and chuckles in the dugout, when he is actually on the mound you couldn't tell from his aspect whether he'd just given up a three-run homer or struck out the side. Yusei Kikuchi, on the other hand, you could just watch at an isolated shot of his face all game and pretty much call the action, pitch by pitch ("fastball missed up and away I bet," one would be heard to remark [not infrequently {no diss though}]). I am an optimistic person by nature, I think, and so you can place no import at all on my pregame couch-remark that I thought tonight was maybe going to be the night Yusei Kikuchi really put it all together (such as it is) and have a really nice game, but he really really did: a run on three hits and a walk, seven strikeouts, in six innings? Against this lineup? In this economy? You'd take that every time. Phelps, Mayza, and Yimi Garcia were really nice in relief taken together as a whole (Phelps walked a pair and threw I think seven straight balls for a minute there), and Vladdy's slick game-ending scoop to save Matt Chapman's throw and indeed the game with the bases loaded in the ninth really bailed Jordan Romano out. I have not yet mentioned that the Blue Jays other run, scored all the way back in the third, was Vladdy knocking in Bo Bichette's double, but that is indeed how it went down, and I think Dante Bichette is maybe right that they have fixed whatever the specific problem was with Bo's swing, because he was really good all series.
What a difference to end this series, and this homestand, with a win. It would have been a real drag to have been swept at home by the Yankees, but now that you can frame the last six games as having split with Houston and New York, that honestly doesn't sound too bad at all, does it? Only the Yankees have a better record than the Blue Jays in all of the American League, and we're off to Cleveland next for four, which should go pretty well, right? Then Yankee Stadium and Tampa Bay for a while after that so let's win like no fewer than three in Cleveland how about.
KS
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