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| there was kind of a lot of this (five stolen bases is plenty) |
Two constants throughout this, our weird fiftieth summer of Blue Jays baseball, have been the top-of-the-league excellence of both Dylan Cease and Louis Varland in their closely related respective fields (of striking guys out in slightly different portions of baseball games). Though it is an unfair and unrealistic expectation, it's gotten to the point that you don't really figure Varland will allow any runs at all, ever, though last night, he did (just the one, on an unplayable walk-off infield single not all that long after what replays showed should perhaps have been an inning-ending third strike on an imperfectly checked swing, but what can you do). And as for Dylan Cease, you'd never expect five runs in five innings, though that's how things went last night (one run was unearned, as a botched rundown between home and third saw poor Kazuma Okamoto pick up two errors on the same play, the second logged as "throw," which happens to everybody, but the first as "missed catch," which stings [and in fairness to him, the rundown should probably have ended before Kirk's throw that Okamoto officially missed]). The game-tying, top-of-the-ninth home run from Andrés Giménez, much like the Blue Jays' three-run rally in the seventh (that ended, alas, with Giménez picked off at second), was rad, but ultimately proved just ever-so-slightly insufficient. A drag! Especially when a win would have put us right back into that final playoff spot. There's still time for that, though, and we've got José Soriano going tonight, which is promising. It is a shame (though an entirely understandable one) to have used both Rogers and Varland in what turned out to be a loss, as one wonders about their availability if not today, then in tomorrow's bullpen day (I had incorrectly thought Scherzer would start Wednesday, but no, he's going Friday, after the off-day Thursday). Maybe we should put up a bunch of runs early and just coast?
KS
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