Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 4: The Most Exciting Play In Baseball

 

full send

With both our own José Soriano and Boston's Ranger Suarez having completed their tasks admirably earlier in the evening (just a run allowed by each in their six and five innings pitched, respectively), and with those who immediately relieved them having done quite well also (no further runs to speak of), the bottom of the eighth began auspiciously for the Blue Jays with a Vladdy single up the middle, an Alejnadro Kirk soft liner to right for another, and a remarkably lucky break for Kazuma Okamoto, whose little pop up towards first baseman Willson (that's how he rolls: he's a double "l" Willson) Contreras was not only dropped (that's good!), but indeed dropped ever-so-slightly into foul territory, nullifying the infield-fly rule that had been (correctly!) signaled by the umpires but then (also correctly!) waved off as the ball landed foul as it *booped* right off of Contreras' glove (Willson's Wilson? I didn't check, but it might be!). All of this set the stage for literally my favourite play in all of a baseball: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. being waved home and diving in safely on a play at the plate (were we to be particularly fussy, we might raise Vladdy-scoring-from-first-on-a-double to a level of splendour slightly exceeding Vladdy-scoring-from-second-on-a-soft-single, but when it is the go-ahead run in the eighth these distinctions collapse under the sheer weight [mass?] of our enjoyment [an enjoyment singularity?]). That all of this led to a bat-around eighth almost felt like too much (save a little for tomorrow afternoon, fellas!), but proved not entirely unneeded as knuckleballer Matt Waldron ran into trouble (charged with three runs, in the end, in the third of the ninth for which he was credited), but hey, that's literally what Louis Varland is there for, right? To clean up such situations with characteristic aplomb/ludicrous heat and 95MPH change-ups? And with whatever absurd velocity he's getting on his knuckle-curve these days? Yes, I think you'll find this is in fact totally the reason we have Louis Varland around (and he did a great job!). 

And so here we are, just two games out of the final Wild Card position (six games back of Boston for the second one, which sounds awfully ambitious to even note, but here I am noting it all the same), pending the outcome of the Rangers game that is underway in Anaheim right now, at this, our very moment of late-night composition. Although a Rangers loss would bring us to within just a-game-and-a-half of their spot, I dare not even dream it, really, as there is literally no good that can come of pinning one's hopes on the Angels. Scoreboard watching is one thing, but Angels wishcasting is quite another, and honestly feels closer to degeneracy than I care to venture. Instead, let's just look ahead to tomorrow's starters: oh neat! It'll be our old friend Max Scherzer! And Boston's lovable, enormous goofball Payton Tolle! He's a six-foot-six, two-hundred-fifty-pound lefty, and really quite a handful. It's a tall order, but a four-game sweep would really be something here, wouldn't it, friends? I am very much inclined to think that it would.  

KS