2024 Games Ninety through Ninety-Two: Diamondbacks 5, Blue Jays 4; Diamondback 12, Blue Jays 1; Blue Jays 8, Diamondbacks 7

you said it, Yusei Kikuchi; you said it, brother

I felt good for the recently waived (and, darker still, cleared) Kevin Kiermaier when he slammed grandly Sunday afternoon against the (underperforming? yet still much better than us?) Arizona Diamondbacks. Kiermaier, a legitimately all-time great defensive centre fielder (all of the available numbers confirm the eye-test in this case), continues to go like hell out there, but with dwindling results, and this could very much be it for him. What's worse, he's pretty clear-eyed about it: "If it’s the end," he told Hazel Mae, "I’m blessed and grateful." That's for sure the right mindset, but it makes it harder to watch than if he was leaving the game embittered and spiteful. Ah jeez, is all one can muster about the whole situation. The Blue Jays needed every one of those four Kiermaier RBI on Sunday as they barely hung on to eke out their only win in a fairly shabby series to wrap a miserable first half of deservedly last-place baseball. The only other really remarkable occurrences over the weekend were Daulton Varsho's triples in three straight games (how weird is that!) and John Schneider getting tossed on an egregious swinging strike call that went against, well, Daulton Varsho, actually (he's in the mix!). It was nice to see Lourdes Gurriel Jr. continue to bloom where he's planted, his hair now a deeply charismatic purple to match a D-backs accent colour. I miss that guy! Not like I miss Téo, though, who spent some quality time with Vladdy Monday night whilst winning the Home Run Derby. Vladdy wore an old Hernandez 37 Blue Jays jersey for the final round, which moved me more than I would have expected, even? "It’s like we were born to have this friendship," Téo said about Vladdy one time, which is really quite a thing to say about your pal.

KS