2022 Game One-Hundred-Forty-Seven: Orioles 5, Blue Jays 4

 

Vladdy just loves to slide; absolutely loves it

Well this was a weird one! First of all, the 2022 Blue Jays win one-run games at a pretty remarkable clip, and are in fact exceeded in one-run wins only by the Los Angeles Dodgers (who have so many wins of every kind this season that it almost isn't relevant). Losing one feels off. So too did Jordan Romano's first blown save in way more than a month; indeed I believe that this was his first blown save in Toronto in his thirty-three such opportunities? Also the Blue Jays hit into a triple play in the early going, and you just don't see that many of those (first of this long season on either side of the ball, as far as I can recall). So a weird one all around! I very much enjoyed Vladdy's towering home run in the seventh (at the time, it felt like enough), and George Springer's RBI-double in the bottom of the ninth to make the finish super tense, so there was plenty to like here, just not the series sweep we had come to hope for. Alek Manoah, by the way, scattered four hits and an uncharacteristic four walks across six tough (for him) innings in a performance that exhibited, I would argue, José Berríos-levels of "gutsiness," which I do not say lightly. Both guys? To me? Awesome guys. Awesome guys. 

An idle Monday benefited the Blue Jays substantially, as the Rays and Orioles both lost; we got ahead by standing still, kind of. Heading into Philadelphia, the Blue Jays have a game on the Rays, a game and a half on the Mariners, all of which is lovely (for now, it will slide around all over the place in the next two weeks, surely), but the crucial Standings Thing at present is the six-and-a-half-game lead we now enjoy over the Orioles, which honestly, is either enough, or should be enough to such an extent that if it turns out not to be enough, then shame on us, right? And fair play to the other guys? It would be stunning if the Orioles ended this, their noble season, with anything more than like 87 wins, given where they are and what lies ahead, and so the Blue Jays would need, by my math, like 88, right? Which is to say: if the Blue Jays, in their final fifteen games over the next two weeks and two days, can win five of those, then, like, here we go. I say we can!

KS