Here Come the Brewers

 

George Springer: gets stoked; stays stoked

After a stirring series at home against the Twins—a win over the very fine Joe Ryan in game one; a thorough and crushing bullpen collapse in game two; and a bananas 9-8 win in the series finale (in which my preferred Twin, Byron Buxton, homered twice, but so too Davis Schneider; so too Davis Schneider)—the American League-leading Toronto Blue Jays are set to host the National League-leading Milwaukee Brewers at the SkyDome this final weekend of August and I, for one, am about as stoked about it as a late-innings George Springer who has only recently slid home with a go-ahead run (pictured above, really very stoked). It's going to be a tough set, no doubt, and, on the whole, the Blue Jays' schedule is not an easy one down the stretch. Sadly, neither the Red Sox nor the Yankees seem to be going anywhere, but every day in first place (in one's own division, let alone la ligue entier) is a good day; let us savor this one, and the next, and maybe one and a half of them after that, too (we are three-and-a-half games up, you see). As I have been texting to my baseball pals for a while now, if we can play out the season at a .500 clip—literally fourteen up and fourteen down the rest of our narrow way—that would put us at an absolutely classic ninety-two wins (a number of wins that is truly "show"), and require some fairly remarkable play from either Boston or New York (against both of whom we hold tie-breakers! which could matter!) to catch up. Should you find yourself habitually inclined towards thoughts of doom (not something that can be helped, even if you wanted help), you might note, too, that in order to be left out of the postseason entirely, the Blue Jays would have to be overtaken by the Kansas City Royals (ancient foes of 1985, slightly-less-ancient-but-still-getting-there foes of 2015), who currently sit nine games back; this would require a Blue Jays collapse of 1987 levels (please, no questions; it's still too soon). But man! Wouldn't it be nice! To be tops in the whole league! And skip a whole three-game-coin-toss of a round entirely! And for sure play games at home! But first, these games at home, against the ever-likeable Milwaukee Brewers, accompanied this year by the friendly ghost of the great Bob Uecker ("if they ever turn this park around, I'll be corporeal!"). Shane Bieber and Freddy Peralta on the bump for game one! Let's go!  

KS