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| hey great job, Shane Bieber (also Kirky) |
Nathan Lukes is an interesting case, a guy who didn't really get a chance as a more-or-less everyday player until he was thirty-one, but then immediately turned out to be an exactly league-average hitter who plays a solid right field. He's a useful guy! Weird that it took so long for anybody to fully notice! And yet here we are now, very much enjoying both his RBI-single in the first, and his two-run homer in the fifth, which, together, proved entirely adequate, given the strength of Shane Bieber's five innings, and the quality bullpennery that followed. Did things get a little ticklish in the ninth? Was Jeff Hoffman bailed out by some truly remarkably helpful calls from a seemingly confused home-plate umpire? Well sure. But perhaps we need to simply accept this as Jeff Hoffman's method: despite these many recent ticklishnesses, Hoffman has allowed but one run in this whole nearly-done month of September, and literally everybody would sign up for that from their closer, right? As alarming as his saves can be—which is very!—I do not agree with those calling for a last-second switch to the noble Seranthony Dominguez in his closer-stead: Dominguez rules, and we are so lucky to have picked him up, but he has a real problem with lefties, and is best deployed in his current deployment (late-innings righty-mowing). I'm sure we all wish Yimi Garcia's arm hadn't exploded—I have been, and shall remain, a true Yimi Ultra—but the sad truth is that it is has, and the bullpen is what it is in his absence . . . which is actually pretty good! Wasn't it wild how seemingly all the contending teams went into a collective bullpen spiral right after they all added totally good guys at the deadline? Wasn't that weird? I thought it was! But it's mostly all sorted out now, with the partial exception of the Dodgers, I guess, whose bullpen guys, as I understand the matter, are still at least lightly "going through it." Not ours, though, as we secured our ninety-second win of the season Friday night to keep pace with (and stay tiebreakingly ahead of) the New York Yankees, who looked awfully good against a strong Baltimore starter in the first game of their series. Perhaps the Yankees will falter against the oft-perplexing Tomoyuki Sugano, who gave us fits not long ago? A light falter, even? A Yankees loss (Saturday afternoon) and a Blue Jays win (slightly later Saturday) afternoon would seal the deal on the AL East, and wouldn't that be a lovely way for it all to go? It sure feels like it's all going to come down to Sunday, though, and why shouldn't it, I suppose.
KS
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