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| Adam Cimber I am sorry but this is just a great photo |
It wasn't even his day to start (that was Saturday, when Kirk chased him with a two-RBI double to cap a four-run fifth [you might remember it {cuz it ruled}]), but Gerrit Cole did his best to make everything about him on Sunday afternoon when he was the first and indeed only player to hit the field in anger after Alek Manoah's two-seamer got away from him on the "arm-side" (as it does) and plunk Aaron Judge in the elbow pad. Vladdy stood along the first base line making a two-handed wavy-wavy motion with a pleading look on his face as the fussy Cole fussed about; Judge and Manoah, two deeply enormous men, settled the matter with amiable broishness, a little "I got you," that sort of thing, everything was good. Judge, no less than Vladdy, had wanted Cole to cool it, and in time he did, but not before having been utterly ridiculous in the kind of "fake tough guy" way that led Manoah to fairly summarize the situation thus (as transcribed by ideal beat reporter Kaitlyn McGrath): "I’m not trying to do that, and I think (Judge) understood that. I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time.” (You will note, reader, that the Audi sign is close to the first base line, but not that close.) A brief moment of great silliness in an otherwise pretty good game: Manoah did not have his best stuff, but even without it, allowed just two runs (one earned) on four hits (two walks) in his six innings, and honestly neither of those runs really should have happened: the first came on just a poor decision on Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s part to even attempt a throw to third base (never mind that the throw itself was off the mark), and the second on a hot shot to short that took a funny bounce but had Bo even kept the ball in front of him, there's no real problem. But that's how good Manoah is even when he's struggling, which is honestly pretty wild. The Blue Jays' big chance came in a really interesting seventh inning, which, after all manner of pinch hitters and pitching changes and a bases-loaded walk to Blue Jays legend JBJ, ended with Vladdy unable to bring anyone home with the bases loaded and two away. So it goes! Cimber gave up a two-run shot to Benintendi in the home half of that very same inning, and that was pretty much that. Oh, yes, also: one of the weirdest home runs you'll ever see came in the third, when Whit Merrifield's fly ball to pretty much straightaway centre bounced not once, but twice off the top of the wall before settling on the far side. Dan Shulman had never seen it happen; nor had Pat Tabler; nor had I; and if you add us all up that is a lot of years of seeing things. Wild!
And so while, in the moment, it felt like a bit of a drag not to complete the four-game sweep in Yankee Stadium (you only get so many! [literally two: 2003, 2021]), it is hard not to be satisfied with three-out-of-four. It would have been a whole lot cooler to be just six games back of the division lead at the end of the weekend, but instead we are eight, which honestly felt impossible even just a couple of weeks ago, so no problem there, really. A quick glance at the Wild Card standings (Pat Tabler says he doesn't look, and can't look, because it makes him too anxious, and I get it) reveals a three-way tie, in which the Rays, Blue Jays, and Mariners are all ten games above .500, and all two-and-a-half in front of both Minnesota and Baltimore (the White Sox are just a game behind those two, but weirdly feel less threatening even though I figured they'd win the Central this year [but what do I know {obviously!}]). I was honestly surprised (and weirdly a little aggrieved?) to see that the Blue Jays don't actually play tonight, and do not start their series in Fenway until Tuesday, but I will definitely have my eyes on the out of town scores tonight. I will probably also go for a bike right and watch a Star Trek or something too, though; it won't be my whole night, except in the part of my heart that is, like, my baseball heart.
KS
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