Blue Jays 3, Cardinals 1: Blue Jays Legend Luis Urías

 

of all guys

You may recall our recent characterization of Luis Urías as "somehow the easiest guy on the roster to forget is on the roster, even though he's played genuinely well when he's been in there," but also it is okay if you don't, because really there has been so much, hasn't there? Either way, there he was last night in the bottom of the eighth, pinch-hitting for Davis Schneider (who had himself entered the game as a pinch-hitter for Jesús Sánchez [hey welcome back; glad your ankle is better]), rolling one just out of the diving reach of the Cardinals' fine young shortstop Masyn Winn to bring home both George Springer and Daulton Varsho and break the one-one tie. It was huge! And sadly necessary, as an inning earlier, alas, Vladdy, despite everyone cheering so sincerely, had grounded into a double play with the bases loaded and one out, which was a drag for sure, though to be fair he had ripped a double off the wall the inning before that (missed the home run by maybe two feet?), and came in on Okamoto's double right after. A mixed bag for Vladdy, then, but when one of the items rattling around in one's mixed bag is a ringing double off the wall (and a slick slide to boot), you can't really be too upset about the contents of the bag on the whole, I don't think. Dylan Cease, who has pitched about as well over his previous three starts as anyone has in the entire history of the team, turned in six further innings of three-hit, three-walk, seven-strikeout, one-run baseball, a tick below his recent performances, but still legitimately excellent, and enough to bring his ERA on the year down to a wholly admirable 2.41; Spencer Miles (getting whiffs), Jeff Hoffman (getting whiffs), and Louis Varland (twenty-four-for-twenty-four in save situations, 0.96 ERA) took things the rest of the way scorelessly, and everyone (another huge crowd, over forty-thousand yet again) was like "yay." All the talk surrounding the team right now is trade deadline stuff, and understandably so (Gausman? Bieber? Springer? Varsho? Scherzer? Straw? Hoffman, perhaps the most coveted of all our guys right now?), but wouldn't it be neat to grab another win or two this weekend, and be just a handful of games out as we roll into Monday's deadline? Just for yucks, I mean? It'd be pretty interesting! Kevin Gausman throws today, and I both hope and expect the crowd will be treating it, in the most generous sense, like the last start of Gausman's fine tenure (in truth, his fine five-year, excuse me [wordplay]). Maybe the splitter will be splitting! Have I mentioned that, historically, the splitter used to be called "the dry spitter" because of its resemblance to the action of a spitball? And that that term seems somehow lurid to me in a way I am incapable of formulating with any real precision? All true, in any case; all true.  

KS