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| All-Star guys, All-Star belts |
Have the Blue Jays ever had fifty-five wins at the All-Star break? No, they have not previously, no, and the fact that the actual date of the All-Star break has shifted around a little here and there does nothing to damper how rad I find this all to be. First place! By a couple games! The ten-game winning streak that included four in a row against the Yankees at home on and around Canada Day is not just a season highlight, but a Blue-Jays-so-far-this-century highlight, and not one I sill soon forget (how vividly I recall the Blue Jays four-game road sweep of the Yankees in 2003, and yet this one was way, way better). Has George Springer ever hit quite like this? Even when he was busy winning the 2017 World Series MVP? Maybe, maybe, but please keep in mind that he is super old now, and so all things must be seen through through that darkening lens (do you guys know the poem that goes, in part, "Do not give way to pride. / For a brief while your strength is in bloom / but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow / illness or the sword to lay you low, / or a sudden fire or surge of water / or jabbing blade or javelin from the air / or repellent age. Your piercing eye/ will dim and darken; and death will arrive, / dear warrior, to sweep you away"? I ask on account of how it is a good one). What a weird season! Would you believe the Blue Jays would be in any kind of shape at all at this point if you knew going in that Vladdy and Bo were going to have "just okay" years, that Varsho and Santander would be quite thoroughly hurt (plus Yimi slipped in a tub), and that a complete Bowden Francis collapse would leave the rotation short-handed and the (Yimi-less) bullpen overtaxed? Sounds like a disaster, right? And yet here we are, looking to go all-in at the trade deadline to win our first AL East title in a literal decade. That everything could still totally fall apart, remains, of course, self-evident, and while I am acutely aware of this ever-present fact, I must say that I am in no way worried about it. Could totally happen! Wouldn't that be both silly and a shame if it did! But what can you do? This has all been great; perhaps it will continue to be; wouldn't that be neat?
KS
