Another Day (in first place [technically]), Another Hard Dollar (in first place [technically])

 

with a spring in his step (jauntwæve)

A six-run sixth—Daulton Varsho's grand slam, followed in due course by George Springer's dinger—and six literally perfect innings from a Varland-to-Lauer-to-Rodriguez bullpen day (three imperfect but still very welcome innings from four worthy others followed thereafter) were all it took to forestall doom (an exceedingly limited kind of doom, and yet a doom) for another day. Let's go! Still in first place over the Yankees, by dint of a tiebreaker, with three games left to play! It is not great that those three games are all against the Tampa Bay Rays, among our peskiest foes for the better part of two decades now, but we've got Shane Bieber going tonight ("Buck," Dan Shulman rightly noted during a recent Bieber outing, "I think moustaches are coming back"), and young fireballer Trey Yesavage tomorrow. Sunday remains, at present, a bit of a poser: if everything is settled by then (Blue Jays locked into first, or locked into fourth, both entirely possible), one might well run out Max Scherzer for what could be his final MLB start, a kind of valedictory outing for a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and appealingly weird guy; if things remain unsettled, meaning there is still a chance for the AL East title and a perfectly delicious bye into the second round, you've pretty much got to go with Kevin Gausman, right? Even though burning him on Sunday would mean he'd be unable to pitch on regular rest in the Wild Card series that would begin Tuesday if things did not work out in that Sunday start? It's really not obvious! I have been burned in situations just like this in the secondary (arguably tertiary) worlds of subcreation engendered by baseball simulation! Reflecting on this, I wonder how far up the "org chart" the consultations would go on a decision like this? With whom would John Schneider either literally need to clear this decision, or just feel that he should clear this decision, given that it is, or at least could turn out to be, super duper fraught? Even assuming the Yankees end up sweeping the Orioles—no easy task, as the Orioles are a decent team, with two good pitchers starting this weekend—the Blue Jays would I guess only need to win either tonight's or tomorrow's game, singular, to keep Sunday in play for the division title, right? And since all the games on Sunday start at-or-very-near(ly-at) the same time (a tremendous innovation in recent seasons), you've pretty much got to make that decision about Sunday as soon as either the Blue Jays win another game (tonight would be great!) or the Yankees lose one (tonight would also be great!), n'est-ce pas? 

There is, as you can see, much to consider—all of it pretty good, and also maybe a little tense.  

KS