. . . And Just Like That, We're The Top Team in The AL Again

 

what like that's hard?

Two crushing bullpen collapses against the scrappy and likeable Milwaukee Brewers were forgiven, though not forgotten, after a super pleasant 8-4 sunny Sunday afternoon semi-romp against those very same Brewers. But then all at once it was off to Cincinnati, to watch ninth-inning homers from Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho drift away on the summer breeze, both in the sense that they lofted their way out of the park quite sweetly, and also that they proved super ephemeral, as the bullpen once again got torched. However! Our time in Cincinnati was on the whole a great boon, as what followed were two truly wild wins—the first 12-9 after leading 8-1; the second 13-9 after trailing 5-0 (Dan Shulman rightly noted that Shane Bieber weirdly put together one the best 5-0 outings you're likely to see)—that are perhaps best understood as living manifestations of the immutable R.B.I. Baseball ethos. It really has been quite a time! With the Blue Jays off today, but the Yankees playing the last of their set in Houston, our AL East lead will sit at either three games or four as the big series gets going in Yankee Stadium on Friday, and I would much prefer the four games to the three, I'll say that much! Though it is true that the Blue Jays hold the tiebreaker by dint (or at least by partial dint) of their unreal four-game sweep of the Yankees in and around Canada Day—and so even a tie at the end of the weekend would still be a Blue Jays lead, of a kind—that would be altogether too ticklish for my liking. So long as the Blue Jays go unswept this weekend (hopefully not too much to ask), we will remain very much in business headed into these final weeks, as far as the AL East is concerned. Setting aside that rightly coveted divisional title for a moment, I would note, finally, that the Blue Jays remain nine-and-a-half ahead of the first AL team that is not in a playoff position, which, with just twenty-two games to go, really makes October baseball very nearly a certainty, for good or ill (I find that it can be . . . a little tense?). 

KS