Rays 4, Blue Jays 2; Rays 5, Blue Jays 1; Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5: So That's Four Losses in a Row For Your Last-Place Toronto Blue Jays

whooooooooooooof

Well the Blue Jays have been terrible but at least Jose Reyes is on the DL! 

Also, Ricky Romero, who as you will perhaps recall was once a boss, has been quietly released by the Blue Jays after having everything utterly fall apart completely and forever (professionally, I mean; I know nothing of his inner world). This is a saddening reminder of the fleeting nature of all earthly glory. I will label this post with all of the Ricky Romero tags that have accompanied Ricky Romero baseball feelings lo these many intermittent years of them.

R.I.P. The Blue Jays Tenure of Ricky Romero Who Had A Nice Curve Ball For A While That We All Liked 

forever young

KS

Indians 1, Blue Jays 0: Well This is Fucking Great

blast

Now that Ricky Romero has finally got it figured out, the bats have gone cold for him, which is, as I have already mentioned above, fucking great. Another blow against pitcher wins/losses, true, but at what cost? 


Also, and shame on me for not mentioning this previously, but good for E5; that is a low-risk contract for the Blue Jays but a hell of a lot of money for a dude who sure stuck it out despite being set up to fail for most of his major league career. Do not ask Edwin Encarnacion to throw the baseball; do not ask it of him. 


KS

Blue Jays 14, Mets 5: An Abundance of Dingerz

Yan Gomes and Rajai Davis: sluggers of the highest calibre apparently

For a minute there in the first, it looked like Jon Niese was going to work his way out of a pretty sticky situation but then lol nope as J. P. Arencibia ripped one down the line, just fair, for a three-run dinger of the "out of a here in a hurry" variety which I trust you will agree is an awesome kind of them. He added another in the third, and Rajai Davis, of all people, had a pair of two-run shots, and young utility dude Yan Gomes hit the first of his career. Gomes has this awesome stance, front foot slightly open, bat held up high and hell of erect, and he just slashes it through the strike zone man he just slashes it. He looks like a guy who is maybe going to strike out a ton but really lace it every now and then, which, I mean, fine, as it looks super cool and what do I care other than that from a young utility guy with a sick catcher's arm that he deployed a couple of times from third last night. 


I should add that Ricky Romero was a boss, allowing but a run through six. The bullpen was a little shitty after that, but I am not going to mind that right now. 


KS

Blue Jays 8, Rangers 7; Blue Jays 11, Rangers 5: Hooray, and yet Dang

meathead jubilation

When you find out that a game you bailed on ended with a walk-off home run for the good guys, what can you do but feel like the merest fool? Then, the next day, when you do not realize the series is wrapping up with a day game because you inexplicably do not keep a 2012 pocket schedule on you at all times, you are left feeling even worse. The Rangers are the best team in baseball, and the Blue Jays just took a glorious two out of three from them, and I missed all the best parts. I need to get way better at watching baseball. 


KS

Blue Jays 5, Royals 3: Poor KC

just a plain old foul ball but a neat photo imo

Despite lacklustre performances thus far from a few key players, the Toronto Blue Jays sit tied atop the American League East with the New York Yankees, each team with a record of nine wins and six losses; the Kansas City Royals, on the other hand, trail every other team in both leagues with their three wins and twelve losses (0-9 at home!), a mark that puts them in a statistical tie with my butt. All the evils that have befallen the Royals have been deserved, kind of, because it is all about totally dumb choices, but they still make you sad, a little.


But only a little, really, in all honesty. Most of my baseball feeling energy today was devoted to appreciating yet another bosslike performance from Ricky Romero who allowed only two runs on five hits in eight excellent innings of work, and had the infield not botched a big double play, that line would have been choicer still. But whatever, that's fine. On the offensive side of things, no single Blue Jay really stood out with the stick today, but it was nice to see Bausista walk a million times, which augers well, I think. He's struggling, but at least he's not just hacking up there, right? Stay selective, bro; stay selective. Tip of the cap to Brett Lawrie for scoring on a double steal today, a way better play than the attempted straight steal of home on an 0-2 count and the bases loaded and two outs and Jose Bautista at the dish that's right nobody will ever forget that you tried to do that that one time Brett Lawrie.


So tomorrow night it's Brandon Morrow, in whom I have no confidence, taking the hill against Bruce Chen as the Blue Jays go for the four-game streak that obviously I am totally up for, but at the same time it would not break my heart if the poor dumb Royals finally got a win at home, because I realize we are all just people, trying to be happy. 


KS

Blue Jays 7, Rays 3: I May Have Correctly Interpreted an Omen!

bawse

This morning, there was a lone blue jay in my yard, and (s)he was not being a dick, which any birdwatcher will tell you is rare and uncharacteristic behaviour from a blue jay. I chose to interpret this as a friendly omen! If this particular blue jay could find it in his or her heart to not be a dick to me on this day, perhaps the Blue Jays could be the same? And so it came to pass: another bosslike start from R. Romero, Bossquire; a well-sassed second deck shot from Joseph Bats; an opposite-field dinger on a hanging curve from the generally execrable Adam Lind (who I just typo'd as "Adam Linda," which I am going to file away for possibly future implicitly misogynistic dissing); and a blast to straightaway centre from Brett Lawrie (who[m] Bautista, in his wisdom, is not mad at for that ridiculous attempted steal of home the other day: "He’s an aggressive player and that’s what led him here. So whenever he feels like he needs to take a chance on a play like that, he has to, in order to stay true to his nature.") Also Bautista threw Pena out by a mile tonight!  


Is it too early in the season to be scoreboard watching? Should I not actually have the Orioles game up right now, hoping they blow it, so the Blue Jays will be alone in first? Man, if the Blue Jays are actually in it this year (and I am willing to interpret "in it" in the broadest possible sense), I might not make it.

KS

Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 1: A Crisp 3-1 Win on Getaway Day!

Ricky Romero: boss.

Ricky Romero was notably less a boss than usual in his Opening Day start in Cleveland, and he has actually never been that great against Boston, so it would have been reasonable to think that this might not be a day for him to shine, despite looking both so fresh and so clean in the basically perfect new Blue Jays alternate uniforms ("I love the depth of the blue," Alan Ashby said on the radio, and look at how right he is to have said that). But Ricky-Ro was just like, no big deal; here are 8 1/3 innings of three-hit ball; perhaps three will be walked, but five will be struck out. Bawse. Rajai Davis, who is fast as hell, tripled in Eric Thames in the third to even the score at one, came in on a Yunel Escobar sacrifice fly to put the Blue Jays in front, and Escobar brought Davis in with a single in the eighth to round out the scoring. Did I mention that Rajai stole second in that selfsame eighth? It would seem that I did not. Did I mention that he is fast as hell?  Oh OK I totally did; I can see where I already said that. Throw in a couple nice grabs from Brett Lawrie and Jose Bautista and a pleasantly uneventful appearance by Sergio Santos in relief, and what's not to like? 


Oh hey also: I would be remiss if I did not show you this, courtesy of the still undefeated Drunk Jays Fans, because it shows a young lady  trying to sexually humiliate a Boston Red Sox fan after Casey Janssen struck out Jared Saltalamacchia (spelled it right without even checking! it's just like how you say it!) on Tuesday night. In the .gif itself, you can't really see who her sexual ire is directed at, so you need this still for setup (the annotations here are not my own; again, all of this is from DJF; love them here):

And then you have this, in which the young man who seems to be accompanying this salty young lady offers an "all in good fun, bro, all in good fun" high five that is very much at odds with where the aforementioned salty young lady's head is at:

Pretty lurid!

Go Jays!


KS

So How Is Your Offseason Going?

Mine's going great! In the twenty days since the end of the World Series, I have effortlessly -- indeed, one might say, almost gracefully -- transitioned from my baseball season-specific baseball interests (chiefly baseball) to my baseball offseason-specific baseball interests (simming things on Mogul; extending Carlos Delgado's contract indefinitely in MLB: The Show so that I can continue to be with him; reading recent baseball fiction [more on that soon]; messing around with my baseball cards; yearning). It's been fun! I have of course been keeping abreast (lol) of all recent signings and happenings, although the biggest transaction of note so far is only that Jonathan Papelbon will occupy a significantly smaller portion of the part of my brain that minds things next season, which, while not nothing, isn't much. And there is the realignment and expansion of the playoffs/play-ins, which is more of a 2013 thing. But I am convinced that awesome things are going to start happening any day now.


An awesome thing that totally did happen today: new Blue Jays uniforms! I like them! I recognize that it would be too much to ask for the team to simply start wearing the exact same uniforms that they wore in 1993, and so I accept this new look for what it is: a bold step in the right direction, and totally better than anything I could have honestly hoped for given the abominations of recent years. Is the design-savvy and awesome Craig Robinson of Flip Flop Fly Ball right when he says, "While, of course, the new logo shits all over the one they were using, it is pretty badly executed"? He may very well be, sure. Robinson posts an image in which a design-type picks the new logo apart, and I can't argue with any of the particulars, honestly. However, on the whole, it is the "shits all over the one they were using" part that is really sticking with me today, so join me, won't you, in enjoying the heck out of these pictures I totally lifted from Drunk Jays Fans.

Joseph Bats

If Adam Lind is still our first baseman next year then I don't even know.

Ricky Romero: A Boss

The split numbering splits my heart

Pretty neat!


KS

Rays 6, Blue Jays 3: Five Unearned Runs on Three Errors is Arguably Too Many Unearned Runs on Too Many Errors

Not pictured: Ricky Romero dying inside

Aside from Jose Bautista's 43rd home run of the season, a two-run lined shot into the left field seats, this game was nightmarish. Consider the bottom of the first, an inning marred by two errors, and a non-error that was nevertheless the single worst defensive play of this Blue Jays season, and there's a pretty high bar there. After Desmond Jennings lined out to short to open the home half of the inning, defensively wretched September call-up David Cooper managed to drop a B. J. Upton popup in foul territory. Upton singled softly to right, but Romero answered by striking out Evan Longoria with a pretty tasty curve. The inning should have been over at that point, of course, but wasn't, and then it should have been over again: Ben Zobrist grounded to short, only to see Mike McCoy throw one so egregiously into the dirt that I'm not even going to do a thing about David Cooper failing to scoop it, because this was a weird hop.


All of that is bad, really very bad, totally and completely bad, but then this happened. And it was worse. If the ball is going to fall in between two fielders, can't it at least look like this? 

That's a lot to ask, I realize, but really I would take anything over the perfectly ineffectual image of Kelly Johnson and Colby Rasmus both standing bolt upright while a ball neither of them called drops to the turf and rends in twain the heart and butt of young Ricky Romero, hapless victim in this shitty, shitty spectacle. When Zobrist reached on another McCoy error in the eighth, it seemed only thematically consistent that Johnny Damon, he of the short-style pants and ready ways (the pants are longer these days but the ways no less ready), would homer to right and close the book on Romero: 7 2/3 IP, 6H, 6 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K.


There was a definite FMLness to Romero's countenance last night, and who could blame him? I know I won't.


KS  

Blue Jays 3, Angels 2 (F/10): YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH

EXUBERANCE 

Ricky Romero, who continues to own, went nine strong innings last night, with the only real damage coming on solo shots from Mark Trumbo and Torii Hunter. Two runs over nine was not quite enough to earn Romero his sixteenth win, though, because aside from J. P. Arencibia's two-run single in the fourth, the Blue Jays were kind of junk with runners on the rest of those nine. Particularly poor: the bottom of the very ninth, in which E5 singled and Johnson reached on sacrifice attempt that turned into a bunt single before Lawrie sac'd, Molina K'd, and Arencibia lined out to Hunter. However! In the bottom of the tenth, Adam Lind grounded to Hunter -- who, because Mike Scosia is awesome, was playing as an extra infielder for the second straight inning -- whose throw to the plate came too late to beat the sliding Mike McCoy. I am loving these walk-off wins, let me tell you. 


Also, with the Angels in town again, my thoughts cannot help but turn to the plight of poor Vernon Wells, who is playing miserably, of course, and who has recently become the subject of internet fun owing to an interview in which he went on the record thus: "Maybe it’s just society, but people put too much on struggling." Oh, Vernon . . . 


Finally, here is an awesome picture of Torii Hunter hitting a home run. 

KS

Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 4: Ricky Romero Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhh

No big deal.

Ricky Romero, who is awesome even when he isn't particularly awesome, allowed but three earned runs in eight innings in Fenway yesterday, and Adam Loewen (yeah, Adam Loewen!) came through with a big hit late to put the Blue Jays on top 5-4. Romero, who you know is good but who you do not fully appreciate, is now 15-10 with a 3.02 ERA, despite pitching in a hitter's park with some pretty brutal defense behind him in the toughest division in baseball. As Jerry Howarth pointed out when he was shooting from the gd hip on the Jeff Blair show yesterday, the Blue Jays really only have one-and-a-half reliable starters heading into next season: Romero is the real deal, and Morrow is kind of almost OK sometimes, so, yeah, there's your 1.5. I'm feeling pretty good about Henderson Alvarez, but he's clearly a back-end-of-the-rotation kind of guy, right? I completely agree with my mainest man Jerry that Anthopolous needs to find some arms this winter. There's been a lot of speculation about the Blue Jays making a big play for Yu Darvish -- especially with AA's recent scouting trip to Japan -- and much hand-wringing on the blogs about paying the huge posting fee and everything, but who cares? Definitely, definitely not me. Whatever, man, the ghost of Ted Rogers is loaded, let's spend some. It's what he would have wanted, probably. (Note that he would not have wanted that.) 


Anyway, this closes out the season series against the Red Sox. The Blue Jays went 8-10, which I'll take, given that Boston is legitimately good, and Toronto pretty much isn't. This is fine. It is not fine, however, that there are now less than two weeks remaining in the regular season. I find that quite unacceptable, actually. Where do the days go? Tell me. 

Oh yeah also: Brett Lawrie slammed into Varitek at the plate yesterday, and Varitek totally lived up to his almost impossibly hard last name, held on, and sent Lawrie out of the game with . . . a contusion. 

yerrrrrrrrrrrrr (by which I mean Brett Lawrie) out

INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT UPDATE SERIOUSLY I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS: the collision at home in .gif form, via Drunk Jays Fans via The Blue Jay Hunter via Some Guy with NESN I Guess:








KS