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| should anyone sin, they have an advocate with the father (it is Jésus who is the advocate) |
"My god, Saturday's matchup has to be the all time biggest disparity in stuff in history," perfectly-fine baseball writer Mike Petriello understandably opined ahead of Saturday's game. After soft-tossing lefty journeyman Patrick Corbin (6.0 IP, 1R, 5H, 0BB, 7K) objectively bested finest-young-pitcher-of-our-time Paul Skenes (5.0 IP, 4R, 9H [a career high!], 1BB, 2K), Petriello followed up with cheek: "I said what I said, you all made an assumption about which direction." Haha, good stuff, Mike Petriello! I often enjoy your work! I also enjoyed this game about as much as any game so far this season, I would have to say. We love doubles, don't we—just love 'em!—and there were plenty: from George Springer, Jésus Sanchez (a pair of them!), and Yohendrick Piñango, who at this point I can't imagine gets sent down even when any number of guys come off the IL. And a homer for Tyler Heineman, of all people! (I don't mean to be unduly grim, but at Heineman's age, and the way he's been hitting this year, one wonders if Alejandro Kirk's looming return, combined with the emergence of young Brandon Valenzuela, will soon spell the end of not just Heineman's time in Toronto, but perhaps in the big leagues; so let us savour each success a little more than usual on his behalf, maybe?). Yariel Rodriguez looked a little shaky in relief again, but Fisher and Adam Macko did not at all, and with Louis Varland down after a two-inning save the other night, Jeff Hoffman struck out the side in as tidy a ninth as you'll ever see! Good for him! And indeed for us all! Amidst all this enjoyment, much was made (both on the broadcast, and on The Baseball Internet soon after) of the extent to which Livvy Dunne, Paul Skenes' high-profile beloved, unenjoyed the leadoff Springer Dinger, but comparatively less was made of how it was the sixty-fifth such dinger of George's career, and while Rickey Henderson's all-time MLB record of eighty-one still feels out of reach, might Springer not make a run at Henderson's AL record of seventy-three? It's not that far off! Either way, it won't be anything that happens this season, and who knows where Springer might be next year (or thereafter), but it is neat to think about, as that particular Rickey Henderson record, like so many of the others, has felt unbreakable ("If you could somehow split him in two," as Bill James once wrote, "you’d have two Hall of Famers"). I really like that Alfonso Soriano is in third place on the list, though, and I think it is extremely neat that Ichiro had thirty-seven such dingers, which feels high, but he always batted leadoff, and played until he was a thousand years old, so I guess it adds up! And would you believe Korean legend Shin-Soo "Big League" Choo is right behind him at thirty-six? Wild! A genuinely wild list!
And so a series win against the surprisingly good Pittsburgh Pirates, with a chance for the sweep Sunday afternoon with circa-2010 hipster Dylan Cease on the bump. It is lightly uncanny, is it not, that for all our early-season troubles (we really do have so many hurt guys), the 2026 Toronto Blue Jays through fifty-two games hold the exact same twenty-five-win, twenty-seven-loss record the 2025 Blue Jays held at that (this) same point? Given how last season ended, it is easy enough to forget how it started. So who knows! Finally, might we conclude that, after a week of hitting .333 with a homer and a bunch of walks, Vladdy is out of his slump? I feel that this is the case. I do not think this is merely wishful thinking on my part, though I do admit that I do tend towards that kind of thinking when the object of that thinking is Vladdy.
KS
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