Blue Jays 10, Twins 4: Dan Shulman is Right; Doubles Are Fun

 

safe imo

As a holder of an actuarial certification and a contemporaneous reader of the earliest Bill James material, Dan Shulman is no fool as regards numbers. And so for him, counting to six as regards the total of Blue Jays' doubles in Friday night's game against the Twins was nothing; he could do that in his sleep. "Doubles are fun," he remarked to Joe Siddall (who does a good job, but who might benefit from the example of his radio colleague Chris Leroux, who begins a fair number of statements with "I wonder if" and "Do you think that maybe," rather than speaking with undo certainty about complex matters, and the resulting vibes are really quite nice over there on the Fan 590 Radio Network [I don't think they call it that any more]). Siddall, for his part, noted that they are also cool. All true! Down by four runs after new-to-us-yet-old-and-crafty Patrick Corbin's four innings (Max Scherzer, by the way, described Corbin as "a sled dog," which left everybody a little confused [Corbin said he and his wife figured it was complimentary but they really puzzled over it] until Scherzer clarified that he meant that he's one of the team and he pulls his own weight [that's actually a really good metaphor then actually, Max Scherzer; thank you for it]), I had pretty much given up on this one (not in the sense that I turned the game off or anything that drastic), but the five-run fourth and the five runs that followed even after that made me feel a little foolish for having done so in my heart if not with my computer/phone/computerphone. As from the really-quite-a-few doubles, switch-hitting rookie catcher Brandon Valenzuela's first career home run—a true vulgarity rocket to right—was the big highlight. He seems quite promising! Excellent "pop times" behind the plate, too! It's still six weeks until Alejandro Kirk is back, I think, so he'll definitely get his reps until then, at least. 

A mere game under .500! And once you're back to .500, all things are possible! Or at least most things! Some, certainly!

KS