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