2022 Game One-Hundred-Thirty-Nine: Rangers 4, Blue Jays 1

 

say what you will, Trevor Richard did indeed "open"

There was no small measure of traffic on the basepaths, both early and often, but in the end, "bullpen day" really went pretty well: Richards, Phelps, Kikuchi, Merryweather, Pop, and Bass allowed, between all like eighty of them, four runs, which is a perfectly reasonable amount of runs to allow, right? This one was on the bats, but you can't even really mind it as we wrap what turns out to have been an eight-and-two road trip, which is just a wildly good kind. So good, in fact, that the Blue Jays head into this weighty week with everything a little lighter: there is now enough "daylight," as they say, between the Blue Jays and Orioles that even if the Blue Jays were to drop all five games (in four days!) against the Rays (wouldn't that be awful! like legitimately awful!), and the Orioles were to win all week, the Blue Jays would still hold the final playoff position as those two bird-teams bird-off against one another next weekend, birdingly. Although Tampa Bay sits only a half-game ahead of the Blue Jays, and so objectively these two teams are like almost exactly equally good, I nevertheless remain spooked by the Rays, and feel like it would be lovely to take even just two of these games; three feels like an impossible dream. Darest we dream it? Darest we?

KS