2022 Game Eighty: Rays 7, Blue Jays 3

 

me too, Vladito; me too, man

Okay: okay: really, what we had here really was a four-and-four homestand against Boston and Tampa Bay, both of whom we recognize to be good teams, and likely playoff teams; indeed(s), the kind of teams against whom you only ever really hope to go more or less .500. By any reasonable standard that is not a bad homestand! And yet it cannot help but feel like one when you drop the last three games of it, including both halves of a doubleheader in truly walloped fashion (we have addressed this previously and so I will not belabour the point). Things seemed to be ticking along just fine on Sunday until Ross Stripling's tough fifth inning turned into Trent Thornton's brutal fifth inning, and the next thing you know it's six runs. The Blue Jays managed just three, in the end, on their eleven hits (they had like four walks, too; everybody got on; that wasn't the issue). Yikes, certainly, and yet: the Blue Jays ended this day, as I believe they have ended every single day thus far in this the 2022 baseball season of baseball, in a playoff position; and if you are like "but there are more playoff spots than ever now" I would counter only "yeah so pretty cool right?" (even though in my innermost heart I feel that 162 games is more than enough to determine who was good; abolish all playoffs). Of course we have needs -- bullpen needs -- but who doesn't? The rumored "Danny Jansen to Detroit for a couple of good relievers" deal would fix that in an instant, and if that one doesn't materialize, something suitably like it surely will (Jansen is a good player of whom I am certainly fond, but Kirk and Moreno seem untouchable, and you only get to have so many catchers on the field at any one time [for now]). Where I choose to focus my attention presently is on how the Blue Jays schedule from here to the All-Star Game is actually super soft (at least in terms of the teams they play; less so in how much traveling they have to do without any breaks) in that they have fourteen games altogether against Oakland, Seattle, Kansas City, and Philadelphia, only the last of which is a pretty good time, but one that has also recently lost Bryce Harper to I believe a broken thumb on a Blake Snell HBP. What if we went ten and four over them! Or even just like eight and six? Okay, actually, eight and six. 

KS