2022 Game Seventy-Five: Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5 (F/10)

 

Tim Mayza continues to lead the AL in "Charlie Brown Energy"

Well, phooey: Alek Manoah pitched well enough to win (on his self-[co]-designed t-shirt day), but left the game down a run after seven complete, and the best the bats could do from there was tie it up. The top of the order came up in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn't do anything with George Springer's lead-off walk. It was tough to see David Phelps fall apart in the tenth (walk, walk, HBP), and a slick 3-6-3 double play (Biggio, Kirk, Biggio) was not enough to forestall Verdugo's two-run double off Tim Mayza. A nice little two-out rally in the bottom of the tenth (Chapman single, Espinal single, Biggio [!] double) left the tying run ninety feet from home, but it might as well have been, like, an infinity of feet. It is weird how flat it feels to win a series when you lose the final game! And by a single run in extras! This is as close to a series-sweep as you can get without actually sweeping a series, but it sure feels otherwise. No time for that though as the Rays are coming in for something like thirty games in twenty-nine days. Intense!  

KS 

2022 Game Seventy-Four: Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 5

let me tell you 'bout . . .

. . . my best friend

It was probably worth the bullpen (specifically Thornton, and to a lesser extent Mayza) making a hash of Ross Stripling's excellent start to see the Blue Jays BABIP their way to a legitimately thrilling walk-off win in the bottom of the ninth (I would submit as evidence of its objectively thrilling nature the extent to which I was [subjectively, I suppose] thrilled). An Alejandro Kirk pinch-hit single (Zimmer becomes the runner), a George Springer walk, Bo Bichette's ground ball through the right side to tie it, and, after a pitching change (not to Tanner Houck, though!), Vladdy's ground ball past Bogaerts to win it . . . I mean, come on. It was not the biggest crowd (27 140, including, for a time, my old pal Anth, who tragically had to leave early to catch a GO Train) but probably one of the merriest. Why wouldn't they be! (Walk-off win/Loonie Dogs.)

And so a "series win" (a fake idea [and yet a very real one {when you really think about it}]) to open this potentially ruinous eight-game, seven-day homestand, with Alek Manoah on the mound for the next one -- on his own t-shirt night, no less. A potentially powerful moment.

KS    

2022 Game Seventy-Three: Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 2

first we were like

and then we were like

Flappy-gloved young Red Sox starter Connor Seabold did not pitch terribly, really, but you add up Bo Bichette's RBI double in the first, home runs from Springer and Vladdy in the third, and then Matt Chapman's in the fifth, and all of a sudden it's 7-0 Blue Jays with Kevin Gausman absolutely rolling through seven scoreless innings (4H, 2BB, 10K). The Red Sox were biting on the splitter all night, so either Gausman is no longer tipping (he is wearing an utterly enormous glove to help conceal grips better), or perhaps the Red Sox simply do not have on him what the Twins have on him? Interesting to think about either way! Whatever the mechanism, this was a promising start to what feels like a pretty major homestand. Hey also, here's something: with their 9-2 win over the Mariners last night, the Baltimore Orioles, who I have been insisting are not that bad this year, now stand at 35-40 on the season, for a .467 winning percentage (per mille, I guess). That puts them ahead of eleven other MLB teams! And consider that they have to play their grossly unbalanced schedule in the AL East, the division that would, were the season to end today (I realize it will not), send four of its teams to the postseason? It is not inconceivable that Orioles could end up a .500 team on the season, playing an historically great division! Wouldn't that be wild! Good for the Orioles, is all I mean to say, even though I find their manager to be an unpleasant guy.  

KS 

2022 Game Seventy-Two: Brewers 10, Blue Jays 3

 

and that was *Vladdy*

It's one thing to watch Yusei Kikuchi get shelled out there (in fact it is many things; innumerable things; unnamable things), but quite another to see José Berrios roughed up for eight runs in just two-and-two-thirds. He has had some tough, tough outings this year, and at other times has looked every bit as good as you'd hope. It's a bit of a poser! Alejandro Kirk's three-run homer in the first was really the only bright spot on the day (as far as baseball goes; it was a lovely summer Sunday). This largely unsuccessful road trip does not auger well, probably, as the Blue Jays head home for eight games against Boston and Tampa Bay over the next seven days. I had gotten extremely used to the Blue Jays as the top wild card team, but that is not at all the case now, given the weird tear the Red Sox have been on. I think maybe I had gotten too cute by half with all my talk of how the final wild card spot is probably a better place to end up than either of the first two, and now I am to be haunted by it? We're a game and a half behind Boston, tied with the Rays, and only two ahead of Cleveland. You just settle down, Cleveland; you just settle right down. 

KS

2022 Game Seventy-One: Brewers 5, Blue Jays 4

Trent Thornton wasn't even supposed to be here today

Here's another Yusei Kikuchi start where you look at the final score, and you think, Kikuchi must been at least okay then, right? Reader, he was not! Five runs (only two earned, in fairness) in just two innings, and a forty-pitch first that made it clear we were going to need a lot of innings from the bullpen no matter what else happened from there. Thornton worked a scoreless pair, and then young Max Castillo allowed just a hit and two walks in four to take it the rest of the way. The Blue Jays "battled back" one might say with home runs from Matt Chapman and Bo Bichette, and yet . . . and yet. I was wondering if maybe a face-saving stint on the Injured List might be in Yusei Kikuchi's near future as he tries to figure it out (left elbow tightness can mean a lot things) but he insists he's fine. I have nothing but sympathy in my heart for Yukei Kikuchi and his extraordinary plight, but I think I would feel a whole lot better with Max Castillo taking his turn in the rotation until things settle down a bit for Yusei, whose fastball could, in any given instance, go absolutely anywhere (like off of Andrew McCutchen's bat behind him, over the shoulder, for a foul ball, which may or may not have occurred [did occur] in Saturday's sad affair).  

KS

 

2022 Game Seventy: Blue Jays 9, Brewers 4

 

your All-Star starting catcher, probably 

It turns out something I enjoy nearly as much as I enjoy enjoying Alejandro Kirk (whom I enjoy a great deal) is enjoying Bob Uecker (whom I also enjoy a great deal) enjoying Alejandro Kirk (which I really do enjoy, I have just now learned, a very great deal also). I make it a point to treasure every inning of Bob Uecker on the radio, which isn't actually that hard to do, because they are so inherently wonderful that they kind of autotreasure. How many catchers do you see hitting cleanup these days! Boy, not many! Lots of stuff just like that got said about Kirk, who went four-for-four with a home run in an easy-breezy 9-4 win for Alek Manoah, who allowed just two of those four runs in his very-nearly-seven innings of work ("one more? one more?" you could see him plead as Charlie Montoyo made his way up the steps). Cavan Biggio, who has been better than ever this last little while, was two-for-two with a home run and two walks, and Uke got to thinking about Cavan's father Craig, which led him to all kinds of reminiscences about Houston, and the ballpark they played in even before the Astrodome, and then the Astrodome, and then how it was a clear roof for the first season, but then they painted it because nobody could see the ball, and then the grass wouldn't grow, and on and on until unfortunately the game ended and everybody had to go to bed. Back tomorrow, though. 

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Nine: Blue Jays 9, White Sox 5

 

yes sir, let's admire that one

Do not let the final score, uncentered as it was by a three-run Chicago eighth, fool you: this one was a blowout, with home runs from Téo (five this month, and he's hitting like .321 in June, too), Alejandro Kirk (third behind only Judge and Trout in AL All-Star voting!), and a grand slam for Bo Bichette (his second of the season). It is sad that hitting coach Guillermo Martinez was not that there to see the boys, and their boppings, but he was kicked out before the game even began for really giving it to Doug Eddings over last night's, well, last night's happenings, let's say. I don't know that Guillermo Martinez has ever brought out the lineup card before, and the great Dan Schulman didn't know either (nor yet the affable Pat Tabler), but it all seemed entirely premediated and executed very much according to plan. Ross Stripling, who continues to roll (1.81 ERA in his last ten games, I think they said?), allowed just one run on six hits in five (just one walk), and it was really just Adam Cimber being all out of sorts that made this a game anybody even stuck around for (I really like the White Sox crowds this series, by the way -- I don't think I've ever heard a crowd angrier at their manager whilst taking two out of three from a better team; I don't want that for the Blue Jays, but I love that for the White Sox). On to Milwaukee, and you know that means: Bob Uecker on the radio! The three-dollars-a-month I pay to have all the radio feeds feels like an extra bargain this month. I would pay that much monthly just to hear Bob Uecker's live-reads for sausages. But he'll probably tell stories, too! 

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Eight: White Sox 7, Blue Jays 6

 

safe on this one (don't ask about the next one)

Much has been made, and quite rightly I suppose, of home-plate umpire Doug Eddings' historically egregious night calling balls and strikes (Pete Walker got tossed in the tenth, and honestly I kind of can't believe it took that long), but my main experience of this one was feeling like it was a real drag that Romano blew the save in his first appearance since the tremendous five-out performance against the Yankees on Sunday afternoon. Everything that happened after that was honestly just kind of whatever. My view on extra-inning baseball games remains unchanged: I will not stick with them passed a normal bedtime, because if the Blue Jays lose, I will just feel foolish for having stayed up; if I go to bed and they win, I will not feel bad about having found about it the next morning; I will simply be glad that they have won. I did manage to catch the top of the tenth, when Vladdy knocked Bo in on what I believe was the first pitch of the at-bat, which led the loudest heckler I have ever heard to yell "YOU HAD A BASE OPEN, TONY" (the "fire Tony" and "let's go Blue Jays" chants of the earlier innings were nearly as delightful). Looking at the play-by-play data, the only really neat thing I missed was a 6-1-3, Bo to Kirk to Vladdy double play to end one of the extra innings (probably the eleventh?), but I stand by my decision.

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Seven: White Sox 8, Blue Jays 7

 

a warm one

I don't know which was unlikelier, Raimel Tapia's two-run homerun in the second (off Lance Lynn!), or Cavan Biggio's two-run homerun in the ninth (off Joe Kelly!). They were certainly both pleasant. Far less pleasant, though, was the extent to which José Berríos got knocked around: six runs in four innings is pretty rough, and although he only walked one, so it's not like he was wild in that sense, he certainly lacked command, and left a lot of pitches in very hittable places, and the White Sox are a good if underperforming team. And they knocked him around. This was a one-run game that didn't really feel like a one-run game, because it was only a one-run game for like five minutes at the end.

KS 

2022 Game Sixty-Six: Blue Jays 10, Yankees 9

 

Lourdes . . .

. . . and then Téo!

I guess you can't say for sure that this was the game of the season, but it was certainly the most recent game to make you feel like, well, that's probably as good a game as we will see all year, and, if that's the case, that will have meant it was a pretty good year, sometimes. It began auspiciously, with Josh Donaldson acting like a great big fussy baby (he's fussy, cuz he's a baby) after a Yusei Kikuchi fastball hit him in the back, and everybody booing him (and rightly so: dude, Yusei Kikuchi is like the nicest guy, and also he is Yusei Kikuchi, so you guys are probably going to score a half-dozen runs this inning, so just take your base, champ). Bench coach Big John Schneider could be seen laughing about it with an incredulous "can you believe this guy?" look towards his dugout neighbour (no, I can't believe this guy either, Big John Schneider), coupled with a kind of "well then do something about it, Donaldson" vibe or aspect (vibespect/vaspect), too. And do something about he did: with Judge ahead of him at second, Donaldson utterly pointlessly drifted off the base so far on his "secondary lead" that Vladdy snuck in on little cat feet behind him, arriving at the bag (Vladdy, I mean, not Donaldson [not Donaldson at all]) the same instant as Alejandro Kirk's inning-ending kingly toss. Head's-up play, Donaldson, great job. I was a little worried that Josh Donaldson's jerkly ways would ultimately win the day when his two-run homer put the Yankees ahead by a pair (the Blue Jays had scored on Vladimir Guerrero's first-inning laser-canon-deth-(sic)-sentence of a line-drive homer to left), and this worry only deepened as the Yankees lead grew to 8-3. How fortuitous, then, that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a grand slam in the sixth (on father's day! with his dad there!), and then also Téo hit a three-run homer in the seventh, and then Jordan Romano got an absolutely unreal five-out save that involved striking out Aaron Judge with runners on to end the eighth. How. Fortuitous. Then.   

At the risk of saying "then" again, what, then, did we learn, then, from this three-game series, then? I contend that it is this: that the Toronto Blue Jays will not catch the New York Yankees this year, but that the Toronto Blue Jays can beat the Yankees this year. And we have learned also that if they do, it will rule.  

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Five: Yankees 4, Blue Jays 0

 

not without my Manoah

“Nobody is messing with my Manoah,” is how Charlie Montoyo explained his decision to come out of the dugout and get tossed after Trevino pretty clearly swung at a pitch that he was also hit by (like right in the chest, too! ouch!). Manoah was hot, and correct, though probably not correct to be that hot? I don't think it's easy for Alek Manoah. But it was easy for Montoyo, who clearly saw what needed to happen: I need to get kicked out of this game right now or else we are gonna burn through the bullpen in a game we are not going to win and we will be sunk not just today but tomorrow too. And so he did! Great work on that, honestly. I like Charlie.

The Yankees are just historically good so far, like they have a legitimate chance of having the best season of major league baseball that there has ever been, and as I am sure I have said already (here, I think, though certainly elsewhere, and over and over in my mind), it is actually totally liberating, from a Blue Jays fan perspective, for the Yankees to be not just good, and not just great, but like astronomically great: are you, Blue Jays fan, going to get to the end of a season where the Yankees win 125 games, and be like, I can't believe Shapiro and Atkins didn't build a 126-win team? No, you are not going to be like that; you would be a fool to be like that; do not even call into the as-listened-to-on-slim-radios-on-the-walk-home-up-Spadina-cuz-the-streetcar-is-too-crowded-and-not-much-faster-anyway, Mike-Wilner-era of Jays Talk on the Fan 590 with a "take" that foolish. Instead, you should I think "take" solace in the fact that either the Yankees are going to add a World Series championship to their historically great regular season performance, and so it will have been neat to see the best baseball team ever, or, they will end the best baseball season ever by losing to someone in the largely random (haphazard?) playoffs, which will be hilarious. Are the Yankees way better than the Blue Jays? Yes, demonstrably! Might the Yankees lose to the Blue Jays in the playoffs, should the Blue Jays make it? They sure might, sure! "Building a team that can make the playoffs" and "building a team that can win the World Series" are not two separate, distinct tasks; anyone can win in the playoffs; we have seen this time and time again; you don't even have to go to FanGraphs at all; this has happened and is happening on the level of the text itself; no interpretation is required. The postseason is essentially Candyland, in that anything can happen to you. Even if the Yankees win the AL (which they should, but who can say), imagine if the lost the World Series to the Mets, who have looked so good far (and yet things can turn Metsy in an instant; in fact things are perhaps at their Metsiest when they are turning in an instant; that moment of inflection might be where "Metsiness" is itself contained [where is Metsiness bred?]).  

I am digressing pretty hard but all I mean to say is that it's all okay. As was this game, probably, which I only really followed in the form of occasional check-ins on the play-by-play data, and then passing word along to the other attendees of a lovely barbecue. Everyone who heard: was bummed to hear it. But it led to some good talk!

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Four: Yankees 12, Blue Jays 3

 

pretty nice light!

Obviously this one got way out of hand in the eight-run fifth (that's one of the absolute worst kind of fifths they've got), but up until that, I absolutely loved the feel of this game: huge crowd (44 688), roof open (so the huge crowd felt like a merry band rather than a looming threat), lovely evening, and just a constant buzz from even before the first pitch was thrown. When Alejandro Kirk tagged up at second and scurried to third on a Matt Chapman fly ball to Aaron Judge in centre, the crowd was, like, electric about it, even though that is objectively not a huge play. It can't always be like that, and even if it was, it wouldn't feel special after a while, but it was a pretty exciting reminder of one of the ways baseball in Toronto can feel; I'm not even saying it is the best way, merely that it is one of the ways, and I way that I totally welcomed. And then we got creamed.

KS   

2022 Game Sixty-Three: Orioles 10, Blue Jays 2

 

me too, Kevin Gausman; me too man

A high-pitched crowd of 36 832 on-hand at the SkyDome for what I believe they call School Day did not have a whole lot to cheer about, unless those kids like the roof closed and an infinity of Orioles doubles. Personally I am not wild about either, but tastes often break down along generational lines so I will not presume. It was a school day for me as well, in the sense that I was wrapping up some spring semester details with the game on in the background, and so I did not attend to the particulars of Kevin Gausman's miserable six-run third inning closely enough to know if he is still tipping his pitches or what, but I guess I would have to say that I hope he was? Because if he wasn't, and was just getting ripped this bad by Baltimore, that's probably worse? I am pleased for the kids in attendance that they had a Téo to get excited about (he hit one 461 feet the night before!), but that's pretty much all they got. They seemed pretty cool with things anyway, though. It's a neat thing to do in the last couple weeks of school.

KS

2022 Game Sixty-Two: Blue Jays 7, Orioles 6 (F/10)

 

Hazel's revenge

Although I want only the best for Yimi Garcia, Vladdy's walkoff single in the tenth (his fourth hit of the night) was probably worth the three runs Yimi uncharacteristically allowed in the eighth. I sure didn't feel good about them at the time! But it also allowed, I suppose, for Adam Cimber's really pretty remarkable top-of-the-tenth, where he overcame a "runner-on-third, one out" situation (the O's had bunted) despite not really being a strikeout pitcher at all. He was fired up! Me too! José Berríos went seven, and allowed just three hits (though they were pretty big hits), and seems to be totally unplagued by whatever it was, exactly, that had plagued him previously. Lots to like in this one, perhaps most of all the Orioles' decision to pitch to Vladdy with Bo (the tenth-inning Manfred Man) on second and thus a base open behind him. Much derision has been visited upon Orioles' manager Brandon Hyde, a man for whom I have no fondness because he carries on like a hothead and jerk, but I actually get this decision: if you don't pitch to Vladdy, you've got Kirk and Téo next, both of whom have been just as hot of late; and, perhaps more importantly, the Orioles are a rebuilding, last-place team, trying to figure out which of there many young guys are the young guys to keep around. Pitching in the AL East means sometimes you've got to try to get Vladdy out, so why not make this one of those times? And if it doesn't happen, that's okay too. Worst-case scenario (indeed, worst-case Ontario), you lose a baseball game.

KS   

2022 Game Sixty-One: Orioles 6, Blue Jays 5

 

high and tight

Is the strangeness attendant to the phenomenon of Yusei Kikuchi an epistemological strangeness, in that he eludes our present means of knowing, but is fundamentally knowable and may one day be known; or is it an ontological strangeness; that is, is Yusei Kikuchi's strangeness in principle inexplicable? Does it deny and defy rationality in an absolute sense? Either way, four runs allowed in four innings against the Orioles is rough, and it was enough to bring the Blue Jays 7-0 streak against Baltimore (outscoring the O's 83-29 over that glorious stretch) to a low-key ignoble close. The Blue Jays drew even with the Orioles at three in the fourth on the strength of "Chapman's homer" (haha [look into it]), but Kikuchi allowed a solo home run to the next batter he faced, and the story from there, from a Blue Jays perspective, was runners left stranded. When a leaping catch at first kept George Springer from driving in the tying run in the eighth, it felt like the end even though "the big bats" were due up in the ninth, and it turned out that wasn't just the dread talking. Ah well: with José Berríos and Kevin Gausman our starters for the next two, there's every reason to think we can/will still take three-out-of-four, which is all you can really ask for. I am always saddened a little when the Blue Jays fall below .600, which is an unfair standard, but they're really good! They can do it! I've seen it! We've all seen it! They should just do it! 

KS

2022 Game Sixty: Blue Jays 11, Orioles 1

 

quite a night

Aside from Vladdy's ludicrously towering second-deck homerun (off the bat, I honestly thought it had a shot at the 500s), and the endless-seeming joy of the Blue Jays' seven-run fifth, my favourite thing about Monday night's 11-1 win over the Orioles came in the top of the third, when, with two on and nobody out, Alejandro Kirk threw behind the runner at first, who was so hung up that both he and his pal at second had to just break for the next available base, except it wasn't, because Vladdy fired it across to Espinal at third (Chapman is resting) to start a run down and get the runner who had been at second, but who was now quite simply, and largely through no real fault of his own, "an out guy." It was such a good baseball play. I welcomed this toss-and-catch precision as wholeheartedly as Pat Tabler welcomes a single to the opposite field (watch him keep his hands inside that baseball, Pat Tabler will invite not only Dan Shulman, but indeed us all). Alek Manoah, let us not forget, is awesome, and allowed just a hit and a walk in another six shutout innings, which brings him by the fallible but familiar measures to an 8-1 mark on the season with a 1.67 ERA. Finally, a scoring note: when what looks like a routine 5-3 putout ends up with the runner safe at first because the throw from third rips straight through the pocket of the first baseman's glove, there is really no choice but to score the play a tough-luck E3. Reflect on this and I am sure you will see why (or, if not, perhaps this contemplation will bring you nearer to deeper truths. Could be good either way!).

KS

2022 Game Fifty-Nine: Blue Jays 6, Tigers 0

 

that's a double, or is about to be

Hyun-Jin Ryu is, as I have noted previously, as interesting to watch pitch as any pitcher in Blue Jays history (to me), and so I am always saddened when he becomes inflamed (in whole or in part) and must step away from those duties, but on the level of pure performance, it is hard to imagine Ryu pitching any better than Ross Stripling has in his stead. I think it's thirteen-and-two-thirds consecutive innings of scorelessness from Stripling at this point? Sunday's outing was one hit and no walks over six complete innings. And looking at the box score now, it would seem the only other Tigers' hit all day was the single off Thornton in the eighth (Yimi Garcia was awesome in the seventh, Jordan Romano likewise in the ninth). Vladdy hit his fourteenth home run of the season on one of the vladmost swings you'll ever see, and every Blue Jays batter had at least one hit, except for their hottest hitter, and in fact the hottest hitter in baseball over the last little while, our short king Alejandro Kirk. Hey you know who else has actually been raking, but like low-key raking? Cavan Biggio! Second-highest OBP on the team (that can't be right) behind Alejandro Kirk (that can't be right). A reasonably brisk pace to this one, too, at two-hours, forty-three-minutes. And so we bid adieu to my favourite ballpark for a time (I cannot bear to check if we are back again this season though I doubt it, as I think this is our second trip), and as nice as it would have been to get the sweep, dropping the middle game of a weekend series is definitely the best way to take two-out-of-three: Friday night, one is left with all the optimism of a weekend sweep; a Saturday loss leaves one slightly deflated, certainly, but with the hope of the Sunday series win very much intact; and then it happens! The regular-season series is, certainly, a fake idea, and yet we must organize our time, and indeed our thoughts regarding time, and, perhaps more crucially still, our feelings about time, somehow, lest we succumb pretty bad.    

KS

2022 Game Fifty-Eight: Tigers 3, Blue Jays 1

 

big Charlie Brown energy from Tim Mayza in this picture
(though he pitched well, as is his custom)

The good news, as I see it, is twofold, in that i) Blue-Jays'-top-prospect-and-pleasant-young-fellow Gabriel Moreno débuted, secured his first hit, threw out his first baserunner, and got to hug Miguel Cabrera (who is "sneaky huge"); and ii) Kevin Gausman, who allowed two runs in six innings, no longer seems to be tipping his pitches, or at least is not tipping his pitches in so flagrant a manner as to be discernible to both the Twins and the Tigers (we can say confidently that it is not an "AL-Central-wide" tipping). The bad news is that despite nine hits, the Blue Jays scored but one meagre run, and didn't even manage that until the top of the ninth. Bo Bichette lined out to right with runners on the corners to end it. All of this felt like a shame, as Beau Brieske seemed like the guy to beat, with Tarik Skubal due to pitch Sunday (some very strong names in Detroit these days, and we haven't even mentioned Spencer Torkelson). The dream of the series sweep has dashed against the shores of "leaving guys on," as is so often the case.    

KS

2022 Game Fifty-Seven: Blue Jays 10, Tigers 1

 

Gurriel's hair has found a new level in recent weeks

It might just be that I don't see it nearly as often, but to me, Comerica Park in Detroit is possibly even lovelier than Camden Yards in Baltimore. I think it's my favourite one! "Heads know" that old Tiger Stadium was the actual best of the old ballparks (neither excessively twee like Wrigley nor actually a hole like Fenway), and it is a little sad that it is gone forever, but I really admire the approach they took to the new ballpark in Detroit: rather than build a teensy little bandbox retropark to replace it, they built what that wag Bobby Higginson once referred to as "Comerica National Park," its walls unreachable (and, the legends say, unbreachable). And even if they did bring the fences in pretty significantly, and mess around with the bullpens, the overall impression nevertheless remains one of spacious vastness/vast spaciousness, regardless of how the field actually plays. I just really like it! I could happily watch the Blue Jays play every road game there, especially if they win 10-1 whilst doing so, like for example were José Berríos to pitch an essentially faultless eight innings, and were the Blue Jays to homer three times (Gurriel, Springer, Bichette) in a four-run fourth that would itself be all that they needed, and yet they persisted. A lovely night at a lovely ballpark, unless you were there to watch the Tigers specifically.

KS 

2022 Game Fifty-Six: Royals 8, Blue Jays 4

 

oh no

When a pitcher is getting just absolutely creamed out there, I feel like one's response falls under one of two broad headings based on the general level of sympathy and fellow-feeling one carries towards that particular pitcher, and those categories are i) oh no that poor guy or ii) come on, man. When the wheels come of for Yusei Kikuchi, which they do "not infrequently" (it's not all the time though!), my response always falls squarely into the former, and never into the latter even a little. Even Thursday afternoon, when it was just walk after a walk in the shortest start of his career (two-thirds of an inning), I was just like "oh dear." A fifth starter who is a really likeable guy is a true gift, in this respect. Anyway, the Blue Jays came back to tie it (how can it be that Raimel Tapia, who almost never hits home runs, seemingly only hits monstrous ones? this one went 441-feet!), but the bullpen couldn't keep it together for the eight-and-a-third asked of them (well, seven-and-a-third, as the bottom of the ninth proved unnecessary): Trevor Richards got roughed up, and Cimber and Merryweather allowed runs, too. It just extremely did not happen. Ah well, it must have been a nice afternoon for the Kansas City fans, who had suffered through a rainy 15-0 in the first two games. On to Detroit! The Blue Jays are going from strength to strength on this road trip as far as playing poor teams in wonderful ballparks goes (I am "here for it"). 

KS     

2022 Game Fifty-Five: Blue Jays 7, Royals 0

 

Ale-ale-jandro; Ale-ale-jandroooooooooo

It should be a pretty big problem for the Blue Jays when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer go a combined oh-for-eight (with two walks, to be fair), but it isn't a problem at all, like even a tiny one, if Alejandro Kirk and Santiago Espinal are going to go a combined seven-for-nine, which they extremely did in Wednesday's 7-0 win over the Royals, hot on the heels of the 8-0 win the night before. Good times! Alek Manoah, though not as sharp as we are used to seeing him, nevertheless allowed nary a run in six innings of work, and his season now stands at 7-1 with a 1.81 ERA (for those of you still into those numbers [I only like them when they are good]). I mean, who knows, but it would not be unreasonable to suggest that Alek Manoah should be the AL starter in the fast-approaching All-Star Game. Also, and not to get too far ahead of things here, I am very much of the view that he should be awarded the AL Cy Young preemptively/immediately.

KS    

2022 Game Fifty-Four: Blue Jays 8, Royals 0

 

I heard you liked gentle moments

Kauffman Stadium is a true jewel of a ballpark (at least on tv and in the video games that I have), but it was not its jewelness but instead its rooflessness that took centrestage Monday night as everybody sat through a two-hour rain delay during which it did not rain very much at all, only to then get drizzled on intermittently whilst the Blue Jays scored eight (homers from Bo, Vladdy, and Santiago Espinal) and held the Royals to but two meagre hits (which is scarcely more than one hit). On the one hand, consider the misery of those few Royals fans that sat through all of that, but on the other, great job Ross Stripling, wow, man, seriously. I had become convinced by An Internet Poster's haphazard comment earler in the day that the first game of what should be a relatively easy road trip felt like a real trap, and I came into this game super wary, but this was all misplaced (I do not blame the internet but instead myself). 

KS

2022 Game Fifty-Three: Twins 8, Blue Jays 6

 

honestly I minded the uniforms more than the pitch tipping,
or first inning sunglassless defensive miscues

It is a shame that Kevin Guasman seems to have been tipping his pitches, in that nobody was biting on the splitters, and could just sit fastball (not good); and it was too bad that I had already given up on the game (in the interests of Sunday dinner, to be fair) before Santiago Espinal's three-run shot in the bottom of the ninth made it a two run game that got even closer (in the "they got some guys on" sense) after that (I am really gonna have to see Blue Jays in Thirty tomorrow [as though there was ever any doubt]); and it really is something of a drag to have lost a series to a Twins team that was understaffed (do to Viewz) and also not that amazing to begin with; but this was, in the end, a four-and-two homestand, and I will gladly take an indefinite amount of those. Alejandro Kirk homered again today! Matt Chapman, too. And George Springer hit his seventh lead-off homerun of the season, passing Devon White's 1991 mark of "six" (and with like a hundred and nine games to play). The most interesting moment of the day, for me, came when Vladdy failed to heed Bo's call on a high popup to more or less where Vladdy had been standing, but which (due the shift [please ban it yesterday]) was nevertheless Bo's ball if he called it, as he is the shortstop, and he did indeed call it, and so there is no question that the play is rightly his the moment he does so. Vladdy was plainly in the wrong, and yet, had it not been Bo, and, crucially, had Bo and Vladdy not been perfect friends forever, would anyone have even talked to Vladdy about this? Like, who is going to tell Vladdy that he should not have caught the ball he had to just take three steps or so to catch, other than Bo? I am not even sure it would have fallen to a coach! John Schneider? Luis Rivera? I have my doubts! But Bo was clearly not pleased about it, and I totally get it, and he wanted to address it right away, and did, and a lot of it made tape. Utterly fascinating to me, just completely riveting stuff. I am in no way being ironical when I say any of this.  

Okay, on to Kansas City! Beautiful ballpark, last place team; let's: go.

KS

2022 Game Fifty-Two: Blue Jays 12, Twins 3

 

go Bo

The exigencies attendant to an ideal spring afternoon (a scooter trip to the park, an infinity of rounds of driveway basketball) prevented us from joining the game until the top of the third, at which time we were greeted by José Berríos' three-pitch strikeout of the estimable Byron Buxton (take a seat [we respect you so much though]). We had missed, though saw later, Bo Bichette's super swaggy second-deck homerun on a breaking ball that came in just a smidge above belt-high (and was, like, belted), but we were in plenty of time for the Vladdy homer, and also the Alejandro Kirk one that came right after a Téo triple (just delightful, man). Every Blue Jays' starter got on at least once, and fun was had by all as Berríos struck out a career-high thirteen, "settling in" as well as anyone could after the "early jitters" of that first-inning two-run home run. This was the perfectly pleasant one-sided laugher this perfectly pleasant Saturday afternoon demanded. I am here for this decorousness. 

KS

2022 Game Fifty-One: Twins 9, Blue Jays 3

 

what if everyone lead-off home-runned;
that is all George Springer asks us to consider 

Well, it had to happen sooner or later, didn't it, and there was every reason to think it would occur on a Yusei Kikuchi game, and so here we are: the end of the Blue Jays' eight-game winning streak, their longest of the season thus far, certainly, and in all likelihood the longest they will will enjoy this season. I am not upset about it. I liked the George Springer homer, and also the Vladdy homer, and am actually a little surprised to look at the box score now and see that the Blue Jays had only two other hits besides those ones, because it really didn't feel as miserable as that lowly total (combined with the "nine-runness" of Minnesota's offensive output) might imply. Byron Buxton, everyone's favourite, had three hits, and everybody likes him (is he still doing those incredible Sheboygan Sausage radio ads? I should have had this one on the Twins radio to see). José Berríos against his former team tomorrow, which could be neat! 

KS

2022 Game Fifty: Blue Jays 8, White Sox 3

 

Raimel: is fleet

Alek Manoah had some trouble in the first inning he pitched (left 'em loaded in the first) and the last (charged with three runs in the eighth), but in between, oh man he was rolling so hard. The Blue Jays' four-run eighth quickly dispelled the ticklishness that had emerged in the top of that same inning, so much so that Jordan Romano was not even permitted to enter the game, and instead stood forlorn against the bullpen fence as Trent Thornton worked the final frame. And that's a series sweep! It was a shame we did not get to see Tim Anderson; it was a pleasure, as always, to watch Johnny Cueto pitch, although I must admit that I did not even know he had joined the White Sox (I am out of the loop). 

And so through the first fifty games of this Blue Jays season, we've got thirty wins, the first time this has happened since 1992. I don't know how many of you are history buffs, but there is an auspiciousness here, like a(n) historical auspiciousness, that I will not shy from for fear of jinxing but instead lean into as I embrace the inevitability of the Blue Jays eventual triumph (I do not really believe this but do hope that there will be good plays).

KS   

2022 Game Forty-Nine: Blue Jays 7, White Sox 3

 

freaky

I admit to complete ignorance with regard to young White Sox right-hander Michael Kopech, but I will take the great Dan Shulman (and the affable Pat Tabler) at their word when they tell me that Kopech entered last night's game having allowed literally zero home runs so far this season, and only five earned runs of any kind at all. And so imagine my surprise when Santiago Espinal led off the home-half of the first with a home run (A.J. Pollock had led off the game proper with a homer off of Hyun-Jin Ryu; I don't think I have ever seen dual lead-off home runs before), and apparently-slugging-catcher Danny Jansen added a three-run shot to chase Kopech in the third. Alas that Hyun-Jin Ryu, who did not pitch all that poorly, left the game after four with more of the general left-arm trouble (call it elbow tightness, call it forearm inflammation, just call me when it stops making our big pal Hyun-Jin spike curves and miss off the plate with his change, please and thank you [get well soon]). But Ross Stripling, who has really embraced his weird and somewhat old-fashioned rôle out of the pen (something between a "swing man" and an early-1970s "fire man"), did a great job, as did David Phelps (maybe he developed "a closer mentality" on Sunday?), and for whatever reason my personal fav, Yimi Garcia (go Yimi; go, Yimi). Vladdy added a true rocket of a two-run homer off the batter's eye in the eighth to put the Blue Jays out in front by a margin that felt a lot safer than the two-run lead they had nursed since the fourth (I did not feel good about that two-run lead at all; like at no point). That makes it seven in a row, which is very close to eight in a row, and whenever you win eight in a row, I feel like that's a really big deal, because you've just won like five percent of your whole season in a row -- I know that ten games is really when everybody starts to pay attention to a team's winning streak, like on a league-wide basis, but I really do think the eight-game streak is one to attend to, given the "base-162" nature of the baseball season, if see what I am incorrectly saying about math(s). Alek Manoah on the hill this afternoon looking for a getaway-day sweep! If I feel this psyched about it (and I assure you I am), imagine how Alek Manoah feels; there is a guy who can get psyched. 

KS  

2022 Game Forty-Eight: Blue Jays 6, White Sox 5

 

hop hop hop hop hop hop

Two home runs for Alejandro Kirk immediately following two doubles for Teoscar Hernández (is baseball recursive now?), a four-run fifth-inning rally (off of Lucas Giolito, no less), and a mighty back-foot throw from deep left to catch an ill-advised runner at second and save a run for Lordes Gurriel Jr. (no hustle either, skip, Darryl Strawberry was heard to remark regarding former Blue Jay Reese McGuire's ill-fated homeward trot) -- to all of the above I say yes please with the utmost enthusiasm. The Blue Jays' much celebrated "n+1" strategy remains undefeated, this time despite Kevin Gausman being a little less than his usual league-leading best, and Trevor Richards struggling mightily (two runs on three hits and a walk in technically zero innings pitched is a rough outing for any reliever). A nifty play by Bo Bichette got Merryweather out of the eighth, and a sharp 5-4DP (Chapman to Espinal, both of whom did a great job) helped Romano through a shaky ninth, and there you go, six wins in a row, and second place in the AL East for the first time in what feels like kind of a while. A fine end to a weird May of Blue Jays baseball! 

KS