Nationals 6, Blue Jays 2: At Least Kyle Drabek Felt Something Snap in His Elbow

concerned bros

WELL THIS IS JUST GREAT.


KS

Rangers 8, Blue Jays 7 (F/13); Rangers 12, Blue Jays 6: Sadness Brooms

first base coach Torey Lovullo speaks for me on this issue

John Farrell has taken a considerable amount of criticism for the pitching moves that, one could argue, ended up costing the Blue Jays the two-run led Omar Vizquel, of all people, had staked them to in the top of the thirteenth inning Saturday evening, but I have nothing to say about that other than this: if he'd burned a starter, like many thought he should have, and Josh Hamilton had still hit a walkoff, which he very well might of because he is actually the best, that would have been construed as dumb too, so whatever. What I wish to focus my attention on here instead, albeit briefly, is home plate umpire Marty Foster's ejection of Henderson Alvarez on a hip-high two-strike pitch with J. P. Arencibia set up low and inside after, I grant you, back-to-back-to-back home runs. But that last bit is circumstantial, a word that I am not really using right. It was the must egregious ejection of a Blue Jays starter since the time Roy Halladay got tossed by Phil Cuzzi for hitting a Tampa Bay (Devil) Ray in the back with a curveball in the middle of his Cy Young award-winning 2003 season, my favourite pitcher-season ever, for those of you scoring along at home (maybe Bill?). Ridiculous stuff, man; just ridiculous. I am told that on certain replays, a baffled Arencibia can be lipread as asking Foster, "Are you drunk?" I am kind of amazed he didn't get run, too, if that is indeed the case.


Then today Yu Darvish was good, not great, while Kyle Drabek was horrendous, not bad, and there you have it. 


Hell of a road trip, fellows!


KS

White Sox 4, Blue Jays 3: So Long, Ozzie Guillen.

"He's garbage, still garbage, going to die as garbage." -- Ozzie Guillen on contemptible sportswriter and convicted stalker Jay Mariotti (June, 2006)

It looked like the story of last night's game was going to be how the Blue Jays left the bases loaded in the top of the second only for the Tyler Flowers to hit a three-run shot off of Dustin McGowan in the home half of the inning, because really, for the longest time after that, nothing happened. Kyle Drabek got touched up for a run in a hard-luck seventh, and the Blue Jays finally got on the board in the eighth on a mere groundout, but things didn't really get interesting (well, baseball is always totally interesting, but you know what I'm saying) until White Sox closer Sergio Santos came out for the ninth and threw forty pitches (!), allowing a pair of runs on a David Cooper double and walking pretty much everybody before getting Adam Lind (no doubt feeling fresh as a daisy coming off paternity leave) swinging to end the game with the bases loaded. 


But all of that ended up seeming minor, as it turned out to be Ozzie Guillen's last game as White Sox manager, which is, you know, pretty major. As has perhaps been noted elsewhere previously, Ozzie is a character. He will no doubt be loved forever in Chicago on the strength of the White Sox first World Series win in eighty-eight years, and loved everywhere for the amazing things he would say in the papers and on Twitter. All signs indicate that he is on his way to Miami (possibly in exchange for a pair of minor leaguers), which means even though he will still probably be somewhere being awesome, I will almost never think of him, because I almost never think of the Marlins (I see no point). So this looks a lot like goodbye, Ozzie: you are a good egg.


I also wanted to mention unartfully in closing that the attendance at last night's cold, rainy, nothing game between the Blue Jays and the White Sox drew a crowd of 21 320, while only 18 772 showed up at Tropicana Field last night to watch the Rays beat the Yankees to draw even with the Red Sox for the wild card with two days left in the season. I would suggest that this is because people in Chicago, unlike people in the Tampa Bay area, enjoy baseball and deserve a team. Maybe even two! As everyone who has ever gone to baseball games at all knows, the Yankees are the best road draw around -- this year, for instance, they're averaging crowds of 33 954 in away games -- and yet you can't even get 20 000 into the (admittedly wretched) Trop for a crucial game. "If people don't want to come out to the ballpark," a great man once said, "how are you gonna stop them?" And this is certainly true. All I am saying is this: pretty lame, Rays fans; pretty lame.


KS

Angels 10, Blue Jays 6: Neither Brett Cecil Nor Kyle Drabek Fooled Anyone Last Night

zoinks

The Blue Jays' four late, meaningless runs should not obscure the fact that this one got out of hand early, and stayed very much out of hand throughout. Brett Cecil didn't get past the third, and Kyle Drabek managed to be even worse in his two innings of work. That is fitting and just, I guess: an enormous part of the problem with the Blue Jays' awful rotation this year has been that Cecil and Drabek were not just worse than expected, but in fact totally worse than anyone could have possibly expected. Ever. They were brutal. And the worst. Both last night, and all year. So there you go.


Particularly grievous: Erik Aybar stole home. I hated that.


KS 

Braves 5, Blue Jays 1: Nobody Is Any Good

Note Jose Molina, a fat man.

Zach Stewart got pounded, basically, and nobody is hitting right now with the exception of Adam Lind, so that's your ball game. And how are things on the farm, you might ask? Well, Kyle Drabek is walking everybody and getting hit hard, whilst Travis Snider was hit in the head by a pitch and has to go see a neurologist. Things are really shaping up. Shaping up like the least shapely butt.  


KS

Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5 (F/11): Had I mentioned Adam Lind is your worst nightmare?

Adam Lind, still making his way to the to "Country Grammar."

A walk-off home run washes clean all the muck and despair that came before it. I don't even care right now that Mark Rzepcynski can't get anybody out anymore, or that Yunel Escobar pulled up rather than so much as slide into second on a Corey Patterson sacrifice bunt-attempt in the eighth in maybe the laziest, dumbest thing you will ever see on a baseball diamond. Not interested. Adam Lind ripped Koji Uehara's second pitch of the eleventh inning off the facing of the third deck, so we're good.


The biggest news for the Blue Jays these last few days, though, is the demotion of Kyle Drabek to Triple A Las Vegas, where one hopes he will quickly find his form and of course also his smoke. Apparently getting constantly battered and walking everybody was starting to wear on him psychologically -- and I get that -- so this is no doubt for the best.


Still on the subject of smoke, and specifically the throwing of it, here are the three swinging strikes that second basemen Mike McCoy threw in his 1-2-3 inning of work on Sunday. I find this all very, very awesome. And yes, this is totally lifted from FanGraphs.


First, we have a 1-0 pitch to Carl Crawford:

You can see that it touches the gun at 71 MPH, and you can also see Crawford's immediate disgust at himself. It's extraordinary. 


The very next pitch proved no less sneaky:

See, he brought the heat that time: 73 MPH. If batting is timing, pitching is disrupting that timing, friends.


Finally, an 0-1 to J. D. Drew:

I'm not sure what's going on here but I know that I love it.


KS

Red Sox 14, Blue Jays 1: OK, That Was Even Worse.

Pictured: Kyle Drabek and Jacoby Ellsbury. Not Pictured: Any Smoke At  All.

If you're going to get swept in a three-game series, it might as well be by a total combined score of 35-6. Against the team you are, theoretically at least, chasing. At home. On the weekend. With the big crowds.


The only run for the Blue Jays yesterday came, fittingly, off the bat of Jose Bautista, who hit his twenty-first home run of the season. That Jose Bautista has cooled off slightly, and is no longer performing at a level better than Barry Bonds and just a tick below Babe Ruth, is entirely fine. We might have to content ourselves with a player who falls short of that standard, and instead will merely contend for both a batting title and the home run championship, while running away with every advanced metric. 


It's not particularly cheering that Kyle Drabek continues to get pounded while throwing a pretty amazing number of wild pitches and walking pretty much everybody, but every time it happens I remind myself that aside from that miracle game early, Roy Halladay was no great shakes in his rookie season, either. Lots of good pitchers take a while to figure it out, so I don't need to worry about what might otherwise be a worrying lack of smoke of late, right? 


Right?


KS