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| how can we lose when we're so sincere? |
There comes a time in every truly lamentable winless streak where it feels like you're inventing genuinely new ways to lose baseball games, and this is, I believe, the dark territory we entered today. Shane Bieber, in his second start off the IL, allowed a home run to Joc Pederson (I miss the pearls, honestly, and wish he would bring them back) on the very first pitch he threw, but only gave up one run after that (our non-Mason-Fluharty bullpen-lefty Adam Macko allowed an inherited runner to score in the sixth). Jeff Hoffman, who has actually been great all of June, was lightly awesome yet again, I would like to add, getting four outs to keep things close enough through the seventh (and beyond!) that Nathan Lukes' two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth was enough to tie the game as we headed towards the ninth. And in that ninth, that ultimately regrettable ninth, Louis Varland struck out the first two, but shook Alejandro Kirk off three times to get to the slider, a slider that was ripped to the wall for a double, which shouldn't have been a huge problem with two already down in the inning, except for the absolutely hellacious wild pitch that Louis subsequently spiked in front of Alejandro Kirk, which ricocheted off the umpire's hard shoulder pad and got all tangled up in the netting, allowing Josh Jung to score from second base. On a wild pitch. From second base. In the home half, Brandon Nimmo made a leaping catch at the wall to retire Alejandro Kirk—who very nearly got enough of it to tie things up, and yet did not quite—to end the game.
So that's six straight losses, which honestly should probably be a wrap on things, as far as figuring out where we stand heading towards the trade deadline, and yet it isn't at all, in that we are still only two-and-a-half games out of the final Wild Card, because the American League on the whole remains no less baffling an ordeal than this Blue Jays first-half in particular. On the broadcast today, they flashed up a graphic that indicated—kind of to my surprise, honestly!—that Blue Jays' starters rank thirtieth in earned-run average for the month of June, and are just as bad in terms of walk rate right now. Has it felt like that to you? I'd have told you that it's been a rough turn through the rotation this last time around, but holy moly! I guess it has been considerably worse than that! In a way, it's emotionally easier for just about every aspect of the team to be underperforming a little, even if it's a way easier fix for the front office if the problem is just one particular black hole in the batting order, or one spot in the rotation or bullpen that desperately needs an obvious upgrade. When the malaise is broader, I take comfort in it not being seen as just one guy's definite fault. I worry about that more than you might think.
Anyway, our old friend Bo Bichette and his new friends the New York Mets are in for three this week, so that should be interesting! Also the final round of All-Star balloting opens up tomorrow (it runs through Thursday, I believe) and I intend to vote a fully partisan ticket across the board—no regard for merit whatsoever—the maximum number of times permitted each day. I don't care even a little. Ernie Clement kicked two grounders today, and I was like, "All-Star starter; let's go." I don't even care a little.
KS
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