2024 Game Thirty-Five: Nationals 11, Blue Jays 8

 

it's not gonna save you, man

We've got months and months to go, obviously, but as far as "games I minded the most this season" goes, this is going to be a tough one to beat. The Blue Jays scored eight for the first time in about a month—half of them on a true bomb of a Vladdy grand slam (he's not back yet, but it seems to be turning?)—but Alek Manoah, making his first start of the season (Yariel Rodriguez needs a minute), pretty much recapitulated his whole career in a single start, looking almost unhittable at times, at others flying out of his delivery and missing badly, and ultimately getting cooked for seven runs (only six earned, though, as the defense was once again weirdly bad). And even that would have been fine, but for how each of our four relievers allowed a run. I had not even noticed this happening, honestly, but our bullpen, which was such a source of strength last year, is now league-worst. League-worst! And our batting is only slightly better than that. The starters have been exceptional, of course, aided by what had been, before this strange weekend (are the Nationals rubbing off on us?), really very strong defense indeed. We're in real trouble here, guys! Or maybe it's just this: we're going to be about a .500 team for the first time in a while, and we all need to adjust to that, emotionally. We've got the Phillies next, and right now I feel like, well, it might as well be the Phillies . . . 

KS