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| Big. Puma. |
A slightly shaky first inning yielded soon enough to all kinds of great stuff thereafter: Alek Manoah allowed just a single baserunner in innings two through eight (inclusive) in what ended up a one-run three-hitter (one walk) of an outing, leaving only the ninth for the still-weirdly-great Jordan Romano, who struck out two and kept everything nice and cool. With pitching like this, you barely need to hit, but Alejandro Kirk decided to anyway, and went three-for-five. Nice! So that makes it a tidy three wins out of four in Baltimore, which puts the Blue Jays a slightly more comfortable four-and-a-half games ahead of the Orioles for the final (and arguably best? have we talked about this? we have? okay just checking) wild card playoff spot. Off to Texas, then, to face the somewhat lowly Rangers while the Yankees and Rays, one would hope, destroy themselves utterly, allowing the Blue Jays to gain a game on one team or the other other with every win this weekend (the Orioles will play Boston, who I hope are about to enjoy a resurgence; I would like them to resurge real quick). The Blue Jays sit a game and a half behind Tampa, and just half a game behind the Mariners so far as the other wild card positions are concerned, but really my attentions (as far as the out of town scoreboard goes) are focused on just the Orioles and the Yankees at this point, really: if the Orioles struggle even a little down the stretch, the Blue Jays should breeze into the postseason; and if the Yankees struggle just a little more than "even a little" down the stretch, the Blue Jays have a slight (but distinct!) shot at the AL East title, which would be amazing to happen. But that is <<un besoin, pas un désir,>> it's okay. I feel reasonably alright about this weekend's baseball, but not great at all about five games in four days against the Rays next week. That could be rough. But here we go!
KS
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