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| Tyler Rogers, my friends; Tyler Rogers |
It was Shane Bieber's best start of the season, all things considered, and he picked both the best possible time for it (the first of a somewhat harrowing nine-game stretch with the Blue Jays at the fringes of a postseason position) and yet also the worst (an Apple TV game [not directly Shane Bieber's fault, to be fair]). In six innings of one-run baseball, Bieber allowed a reasonable amount of Yankee traffic (five hits, two walks), but only Trent Grisham's solo shot did any damage, and we do our absolute best not to mind solo home runs in this house. Tyler Rogers, Mason Fluharty, and a four-pitch save from Louis Varland later, and we're all set, on account of Alejandro Kirk's big night, with first an RBI-double in the sixth and also an add-one solo home run in the bottom of the eighth as a little treat.
The only problem on the night, though it was a big one, came in the home half of the sixth, one out, with Nathan Lukes on second base, and Vladdy on first. George Springer hit a ground ball to Ryan McMahon at third, who stepped on the base for the force out before throwing the ball across the diamond to first for what could have been (should have been?) an inning-ending double play. But McMahon's throw came up a little short, and Luis García Jr.'s attempt at a scoop sent both the ball and, curiously, his own glove flying. As Garcia scurried after the ball and came up firing, Vladdy, having already seized the moment, as is his wont, rounded second and hustled hard towards third, where he was met with an inadvertent but significant flying knee as shortstop George Lombard Jr. rushed to cover the play. Vladdy's helmet went flying, the ball trickled away down the left-field line, and Vladdy jogged in to score, already not looking himself. He passed through the dugout and into the clubhouse straightaway, was removed from the game, and, today, was placed on the Injured List (seven day concussion protocol) for the first time in his eight-season, thousand-game career. What a shame. Everybody knows that, despite his best efforts, Vladdy has been a mess at the plate since the start of May, but he has been an absolute gamer throughout, fielding and running and playing with all the heart and passion and, events permitting, joy that has characterized his entire time as a Blue Jay. If Vladdy's 2026 had turned out be another monster season like his 2021 or 2024, or even something along the lines of his comparatively modest All-Star level work of 2023 or 2025 (setting aside last year's postseason run, when he became the best October hitter in the history of baseball), obviously we'd have all been thrilled with that, right? But to see the way Vladdy has carried himself through the baffling ordeal of this season, with its enormous and probably unreachable expectations after last year's run, has been impressive in another way, and I'm sorry to see that, just as the team stands just one good (or lucky) day away from being fully back in the thick of things, Vladdy has been sidelined. Hopefully it's just the week, and then we never think of it again, but we all know enough about concussions to know that it's not always that simple.
KS
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