2024 Games Forty-Nine through Fifty-Two: Blue Jays 9, Tigers 1; Tigers 6, Blue Jays 2; Tigers 2, Blue Jays 1; Tigers 14, Blue Jays 11

pretty much your standard soul-crushing
three-run walk-off (two outs, full count, etc.)

That the Blue Jays averaged 5.75 runs per game against the Tigers (a pretty big step up from the nearly league-worst 3.4 they've been ticking along at so far this season generally) and still managed to drop three of the four games is hard to figure out, until you recall that the bullpen, which we had every reason to believe would be absolutely no worse than fine, and possibly quite good, is actually terrible this year despite the tremendous performance of Yimi Garcia, who, tragically, finally got touched a little in Sunday's truly disastrous great-big-comback-omg-ope-nope-wait-the-bullpen-blew-it full-on catastrophe of a 14-11 walkoff loss. A mess! A total mess! Unsurprisingly, talk is turning to which of our guys have but a single year left on their deals, because those guys are probably not going to be around after the trade deadline! Because why would they be! Goodness me but this stinks!

Amidst all of this, though—and it really is terrible!—I would like to note the extent to which Vladdy, just like as an individual dude, has turned it around after a rough start. Would you believe that, two months in, he is actually on pace for his second best season? There's no reason to think he'll ever equal his MVP-level (in a non-Ohtani year, he'd have won it) 166 wRC+/6.3fWAR 2021, but the 140wRC+ he has put up so far this year is for sure a far sight better than last year's 118, which put him at 1.3fWAR, a deeply meagre total for a guy who is Vladdy. But now, he's hitting .302, he's getting on base at a .393 clip. Admittedly, the power isn't where you'd expect it to be, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think it's still in there somewhere, given his still-ludicrous bat-speed and exit velocity. 

It's not even the end of May, though, and this is what I have been reduced to: looking to individual performances, because the team is utterly cooked. It's been kind of a while since this has been the case, but I have seen more bad seasons than good, certainly, and am adjusting fine (I think). 

KS