Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 0: More Like A Bullpen Dayum

 

Braydon Fisher, an opener, seen here opening

When I went to open up the box score ("my favorite urban flower, the baseball box score," the peerless Roger Angell writes in a section of The Summer Game called "Rustle of Spring" [in the same piece he describes the box score as "modestly arcane"), I saw as a headline alongside it "Key Takeaways: Blue Jays 3, Red Sox 0," and I thought to myself that, fundamentally, I have but one takeaway from this gem of a game, and it is that it absolutely ruled and that I liked it so much (maybe that is two takeaways, though, and so the plural in the original in justified [I did not "click thru" to see how MLB.com's may have differed from my own]). As you may recall, dear reader, bullpen days have become a significant point of interest and indeed enjoyment for us here at Baseball Feelings, and I suppose were I pressed to identify a turning point in my appreciation of them (a strange matter to be pressed about, but readiness is all), I would probably have to go with the Blue Jays' 5-2 series-ending defeat of the New York Yankees in Game Four of the 2025 American League Division Series (as previously baseball-felt here). They really can be a lot of fun! Here, let's all enjoy a list of everyone who pitched for the Blue Jays in Fenway Wednesday night, and, parenthetically, for how long: Braydon Fisher (an inning and a third), Simeon Woods-Richardson (three innings), Mason Fluharty (a third), Spencer Miles (an inning and a third), Jeff Hoffman (an inning), Tyler Rogers (an inning, too), and finally Louis Varland (an especially neat inning), the only Blue Jays pitcher throughout this hard-won shutout to allow no baserunners, and instead to strike out the side in the ninth on just ten pitches (you will note, I'm sure, that that is very close to the minimum number of pitches required to do this). The pundits' refrain about all of these bullpen days is, understandably, that you can't just keep running everybody out there like that all season long, but my counter-proposal is that I don't know, maybe you can? So long as you adhere to reasonable pitch limits, and to general precautionary measures like not pitching guys on insufficient rest (Yoshinobu Yamamoto don't read this)? Which is very much how this is being done? Is having a bunch of guys go out and throw between ten and fifty pitches more risky to the overall health of the pitching staff than having one guy go out and throw ninety-to-a-hundred pitches, and two or three fewer guys come out of the pen? Obviously I don't know, but starters' arms explode all the time! We know this to be the case. Certainly, the approach we have been taking makes gives Pete Walker and John Schneider an awful lot to organize, for sure, but I like those guys; I think they're up to it. And the results have been pretty incredible, as the last eight bullpen days have gone thus(ly): 7W-1L, 2.75 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, .195 OPP AVG, 66K, 29 BB. If that were a guy, you'd be like woah! Who is this guy! What a guy he must be! But what if instead a conventional guy, it was one great big guy made up of smaller guys, like, I suppose, Voltron, a lens through which more of this season is coming into focus than I had anticipated at its outset? You never know where each season is going to take you, I guess. 

Like for example, would you have anticipated the Blue Jays stealing five bases in a single game against anyone at all this year? Or that three of them would come in a single inning, two of them on a double steal (among the raddest of steal-kinds)? And that three of these steals on the night would come from Andrés Giménez, and the other two from George Springer? Find me a more sprightly unc these days than George Springer; I defy you! I would also like to note that while things are still not going at all right for Vladdy, he nevertheless went two-for-four, knocked in two of the Blue Jays' three runs, made some sharp plays in the field, and plainly kept up the chatter in merry fashion. The only times he seems visibly down in the dumps is immediately following his plate appearances, and then he switches it back up to regular Vladdy mode. This has been tough. Maybe his two-for-four last night is the beginning of the big turnaround, though! Maybe he'll get ahold of a couple today! It's an afternoon game in Fenway, maybe the ball will really be flying! It could be, you know!

KS