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| find me ball that's smaller ("inside baseball," in the original sense of that term) |
As it turns out, I remain somewhat sensitive to one-run baseball games that end on a ground ball to short leaving Vladdy stranded at third as the tying run, but those concerns aside, this was a suitably excellent finish to an æsthetically pleasing series between two teams that, last year, pretty much everyone seemed to agree were the two most stylistically interesting teams to watch. Of the three runs scored today, two of them came on safety squeezes (safeties squeeze?), which is wildly improbable, and the Brewers bunted three straight times in a single inning, definitely the first time I've ever seen that happen (and I am very, very old). Patrick Corbin, it must be said, was just great in his second start as a Blue Jay, and really the pitching staff on the whole acquitted itself quite nicely this series against these underperforming-but-still-super-neat Brewers; the bats, though, got a little sleepy again after their nine-run effort Tuesday night (perhaps Tuesday left them all tuckered?). Vladdy was just one-for-four today, with no walks, which is about as close as he can have to a poor day at the plate, the way things have been going so far, and I would speculate to you that it is harder for him to stay fully engaged and present in the game when he is DHing (like he did today), as he is such a busy, merry presence on the field in his everyday role, seemingly relishing a nifty play in the field as much as any dinger. I'm sure this could be looked up, his relative performance when playing first vs. his rare DH appearances, but here I am, still not looking. Let us file this alongside Dan Shulman's speculation that Vladdy's OPS in plate appearances in which he nods emphatically after taking a pitch has to be insane; it just has to be.
KS
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