 |
| there she goes |
A top-five-or-so all-time Blue Jays home run, then? Somewhere in the mix with Joe Carter (1993 WS), José Bautista (2015 ALDS), and Edwin Encarnacion (2016 WC), with neither Roberto Alomar (1992 ALCS) nor Ed Sprague (1992 WS) quite in the same register on account of those last two having being on the road (through no real fault of their own)? It's hard to say how many times I've watched the at-bat in the two days since (FOX, Sportsnet, and FAN590 calls here; truly comical Yankees radio call here; TVA call here [ooh que c'était frapper fort!]), but what stands out now is really the same thing that stood out to us as we watched it together on the couch as it happened: watch Vladdy between the pitches; look how loose in he is in the shoulders, the hips. It's not a natural looseness, but a practiced, disciplined one. This is Vladdy remembering that he needs to be loose, and remembering how to effectuate that looseness, or to take steps that will allow him to achieve something that resembles or functions close enough to looseness as to offer some, or perhaps even many, of its benefits. The swing itself will, of course, transport those of us of a certain age and inclination twenty years or more into the past, seeing his father in every movement from the first twitch all the way to the huge, wraparound follow-through, and while there's nothing new about that, it still strikes me just about every time (and possibly moves me somewhat [hard to say]). The moment felt enormous, and has been taken up as such already not just among Blue Jays fans but around baseball more broadly, probably out of proportion to the actual role it played in the game objectively—the Blue Jays were already up 5-0, and rookie Trey Yesavage was well into his unreal eleven-strikeout, no-hit five innings of work in not just his postseason début, but his fourth start in the majors at all—as Vladdy's grand slam didn't pull one out of the fire for us so much as it turned an already solid lead into a laugher (the Blue Jays went up 12-0 before the Yankees started stringing things together against our low-leverage relievers). But that was part of the joy of it, too: two games into the ALDS, this hasn't just been a romp, but an historic romp, putting up twenty-three runs—twenty-three!—against the Yankees fourth starter and on-again-off-again bullpen, sure, but also against their ace, Max Fried, who will certainly pick up some Cy Young votes for the season he's just turned in. The Blue Jays have more home runs so far (Vladdy, Kirk, and Varsho for two each, with Springer and Clement getting in on it, too) than they have strikeouts. Daulton Varsho had twelve total bases Sunday, which is good for about the fifteenth-best postseason game by any hitter ever, and his day has already become an afterthought, while Vladdy's swing has become the defining moment of this improbably wonderful weekend (given the respective temperaments of both guys, this turn of events would seem to suit them both well enough). There can be no expectation that things will continue quite like this as the series shifts to Yankee Stadium, but I don't just like that we have Shane Bieber going for us tonight in what will surely be a pretty intense situation; I super-duper like that we have Shane Bieber going for us tonight in what will surely be a pretty intense situation. Carlos Rodón can be excellent, but the Blue Jays have hit him well this season, just as Max Fried can be excellent, but the Blue Jays, for whatever reason, have been all over him this year. Without checking, I feel comfortable asserting (or at least speculating) that Vladdy hits better in Yankee Stadium than any other road park, and not just the three-homer night in 2022 that led to Gerrit Cole literally tipping his cap to Vaddy while the ball was in play on what turned out to be a double down the right-field line. What if we can put together a couple hits early? What if Springer, who homered Sunday, is locked in again after a tiny stretch of being slightly less so? What if the boys—stick with me here—continue boppin'? What then, I ask you?
KS
No comments:
Post a Comment