Blue Jays 4, Yankees 3: A Tense Squeaker, In Which We Tensely Squck

 

does Dylan Cease throws with less arm extension than anyone
else in the league right now? I think maybe yes? it's quirky!
and perhaps inspiring to those with poor shoulder mobility

Behind a nifty three-nothing lead (Springer singled home the returning Vladdy [a two-hit day for Vladdy, having made a rehab start in Dunedin and signing a literal squillion autographs right after {he is a Vlad of the people}], McAdoo singled home Okamoto, Lukes singled home Kirk), Dylan Cease, without his best command (leadoff walks: an issue!), nevertheless pitched a no-hitter through six-and-two-thirds. When the Yankee hits came, they were back-to-back singles with a runner already aboard, and so Dylan Cease allowed the first run of his last forty-two innings pitched on the road (this really seems like a lot [of them {to have been scoreless}]). Spencer Miles got us out of the seventh, though, aided by a nifty Vladdy scoop at first, and thankfully Nathan Lukes hit a solo home run for a fourth Blue Jays run in the top of the eighth, because Tyler Rogers, of all people, hit a batter and allowed his first home run of the season in the home half of that selfsame inning. Tyler Rogers, we really should say more often, has the third best ERA in the league, and has by any reasonable measure overdelivered on his already considerable promise and reputation this season. Louis Varland, he of the league's totally best ERA, got the save, having made the ninth more interesting than one might have altogether liked by yielding a leadoff double to Jazz Chisholm Jr. (still wearing Giancarlo Stanton's enormous pants, creating a powerful æsthetic), who eventually also stole third. But with two outs, a full count, tying runner on third, Louis Varland struck out the admirable Trent Grisham, and everything was, in the end, super cool.

Would you believe that this win, paired with a Rangers loss (to the Angels, of all people), has us a half-game back of where we'd like to be, with just one game to go in what the streets (my street) are (is) calling the Blue Jays' Thirteen Games of Doom? Baseball being baseball, there is no real reason to think the Blue Jays will automatically be able to sustain the level of play they have brought to these last two weeks against the top three AL teams when they start playing teams of a lowlier sort (no diss, that's also us this year) for this season's brief remainder, but oh man, what if they do! Should we squeak into the postseason by even the slimmest of margins there is no limit to how stoked I will be about our chances with Dylan Cease and José Soriano in a short series! Although, to be fair, if we are in the thick of things right through the final day of the season, which is pretty much the best-case Ontario at this point, it may not be entirely possible to "set" our rotation to best advantage. Has anyone ever run a bullpen day, like on purpose, to start a postseason series? Might we be the first? I would for sure support it out of a sense of perversity if nothing else.     

KS