2022 Game One-Hundred-Nineteen: Blue Jays 5, Yankees 2

 

if you look closely you can see both Raimel Tapia
and JBJ in this pic also [they both scored {Vladdy didn't quite}]

Let's hear it once again for trade-deadline-pickup Mitch White, who turned in another really nice outing, this time in front of his mom and dad, who seemed worried and nice. There was certainly lots of activity on the basepaths across his four innings of work, but White kept wriggling off the hook, and got touched for just the one run against a Yankees team that is certainly struggling tremendously (you should hear the way Aaron Hicks is getting booed; it is almost upsetting), but still has a lot of big bats. It took five relievers to go the rest of the way, but Cimber to Phelps to Bass to Pop to Yimi went as well as anyone could reasonably hope or expect, with Gleybor Torres' solo shot off of Zach Pop the only damage. I was a little concerned and honestly confused when Yimi didn't come out to pitch the eighth, until I remembered Romano had pitched the night before and it dawned on me that oh wait Yimi is going to close today at which point I was super psyched at this awesome turn of events. Another awesome turn of events, I am sure we can all agree, was the Blue Jay's four-run fifth, which began inauspiciously enough (Matt Chapman called out on strikes), but really took off from there: an Espinal double, a Jansen walk, a two-RBI double from Blue Jays legend Jackie Bradly Jr., and infield singles from known speedsters Raimel Tapia and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (they had to review Vladdy's!) before Alejandro Kirk's two-RBI double that plated JBJ and Raimel and saw Vladdy tagged out at home like maybe a second after Tapia scored; Vladdy nearly caught up to Tapia; it was so great (the high-fives that awaited Vladdy in the dugout were every bit as enthusiastic as if he'd have scored; everybody loved it). Kirk's double knocked putative Yankees ace Gerrit Cole (I get much more worried about Nestor Cortes these days) out of the game and into a really ugly state of childish pouting and pounding. I feel like I have had just about enough of Gerrit Cole, and I say this even though the Blue Jays have done very well against him this season. It is nevertheless unpleasant. Anyway: toss Matt Chapman's ninth-inning solo home run on top of all of this, and you've got quite a Saturday at Yankee Stadium. Seven games back in the division! Sounds like a lot but it used to be like seventeen! Top Wild Card spot! But that'll all be a mess until like the last day of the season! Even so though! Even! So though!

KS