Blue Jays 2, Tigers 1 (F/10): On A Bullpen Day, No Less

 

yes sir, let's admire that one

Yohendrick Piñango's first career home run came in the seventh, Daulton Varsho singled home Vladdy (as the Manfred Man) in the tenth, and Louis Varland and his fantastically ludicrous 0.38 ERA gave us two innings to close out just a heck of a bullpen day, just an absolute heck of one. Great stuff! A true bullpen day that ends up in a win for your team is really one of the great pleasures of contemporary baseball, it seems to me. This one went Mason Fluharty as "the opener" (1 1/3 innings), to Rule-5 Draft legend Spencer Miles as "the bulk guy" (3 2/3 innings), and then Fisher, Nance (placed on the IL soon thereafter), Rogers, and Varland the rest of the way. Just five hits on the day for the Blue Jays ("Oh my sweet Jesus," Tyler Heineman could be heard to exclaim as he popped out to the right side on a true meatball), and none of them, alas, came from Vladdy, mired in the worst month and the worst slump of his career. You will recall, I'm sure (because I won't stop saying it), that last October (and ever-so-slightly into November), Vladdy went .397/.494/.745 for an OPS of 1.289 with eight home runs, which is to say, he hit about as well as anyone ever has in postseason baseball history. In the WBC earlier this year, though the profoundly wonderful Dominican team sadly came up a little short, Vladdy's OPS was 1.421. In April, to start this season, Vladdy hit .351 and walked a tonne despite an early-season lack of power (just the two homers). But his May so far has been unaccountably grim: .128/.236/.128. Again, maybe the upcoming trip to Yankee Stadiuum will do him good? As he seems fueled by an uncannily focused animus and enmity there? It would be the funniest thing, certainly, were he to follow the worst several weeks of his career with a typical Yankee Stadium Vlad performance of moonshots and doubles spurted everywhere. I say give it a try!

Let us note, finally, that with Saturday's win, and everybody else in the American League continuing to really just not be very good at all yet (much like ourselves!), the Blue Jays now stand but a single game out of the final Wild Card position! Just three games out of the second one, too. They're six-and-a-half back of the Yankees for the top Wild Card, which is a taller task, I grant you, but it's a four-game series that's coming up in New York, and Vladdy, as we discussed only a moment ago, is at least lightly due.    

KS