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| Springer: dinger |
A bullpen day to begin a big (though not huge [for us]) three-game series is not ideal, but five games in the preceding four days is extremely non-ideal, and imposes certain limitations. Unavoidably! But it's really no matter at all when Trevor Richards, a day after getting pasted for five runs in mop-up duty gone extremely awry, appears as the opener and strikes out the side (baseball: is weird). From there, Julian Merryweather pitched a scoreless pair, and while Yusei Kikuchi ran into a little trouble (a triple and a homer pretty much right away), he got the next six batters, striking out four of them. A quick word (editor's note: it turns out not to be quick) on the Yusei Kikuchi situation, if I may, and the kind of irrationality that has crept in around it: I would like to draw your attention to a post by the excellent beat reporter Keegan Matheson, perhaps the best day-to-day "follow" in all of the Blue Jay internet. Last night, in what seemed to me an uncharacteristic moment of sports-radio-call-in-thought, he wrote: "Adley Rutschman takes Yusei Kikuchi yard. Two-run shot. These innings just can't keep happening for a team that's serious about a postseason run." The replies are filled with people who agree, like oh man that is so true about this inning and also serious baseball teams. Isn't this wild? A team that is "serious about a postseason run" can't allow a two-run fourth inning in a scoreless game? Against a good team? Of the twelve teams currently holding a playoff spot across the major leagues, and the handful of teams lurking just beyond those twelve, how many of them do you think are going to go through the day (let alone, say, a series, or a trip through the rotation, or a week) without giving up a two-run inning? Are all of these teams then unserious? Are two-run innings disqualifying? If so then there are no baseball teams that are serious about a postseason run, which is a relief, because then we will not have to play any, and once we get in it all ought to be a breeze. I usually don't mind stuff like this for more than a moment, and almost never write about it, but I think because it was the essential Keegan Matheson carrying on in this way that it stuck with me. It feels closely related to the sentiment, seemingly widespread, that a team that is "serious about the playoffs" can't keep having all these bullpen days, which is a view I find untutored yeah that's right untutored in that, putting aside the five-games-in-four-daysness of the recent schedule (and the not insignificant fact that these bullpen days are working in the very real sense that we are allowing few runs and winning games), who has more bullpen days than the Tampa Bay Rays (who we just saw, guys)? And who makes the playoffs more than those old so-and-sos? I am once again reduced to pleading with the baseball commentariat (broadly conceived) to remember that other baseball seasons have been played prior to this one, and to consider that there are things that occurred during them that we might reflect on to inform our present moment. Failing that, sim some seasons, everybody. Just sim them! You'll learn so much! I keep coming back to this point and I apologize for that!
After Kikuchi, then: Mayza ripped through the top of the order; Cimber, Bass and Garcia took it the rest of the way; and home runs from Matt Chapman (two, in fact!) and George Springer (a three-run dinger!) made things downright comfortable from the sixth-inning on. That was more than enough for a pleasant Friday of baseball (aside from the irredeemable Apple TV+ broadcast [it's okay, it drove me to the comfort of radio and the play-by-play data of my computer phone]), but on top of that, all of the Blue Jays playoff positioning foes (the Yankees, Rays, and Mariners) lost! All of them! This only proved to underscore, in a sense, that the AL East looks like an awfully tough climb at this point (five and a half games with seventeen to go?), but a wild card spot seems more solid with each passing day (six games with seventeen to go!). Another win or two this weekend would be a bold step in the right direction, and so I encourage that. José Berríos up next!
KS
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