Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 1; Blue Jays 7, Red Sox 3; Blue Jays 15, Red Sox 7: Such Brooms

a faceful of safe actually

Clearly invigorated by the dullest ten-player trade in major league history, Aaron Laffey and my man Carlos Villanueva put together straight-up heroic stars on Friday and Saturday nights to put the Blue Jays in position to sweep away the significantly hated Boston Red Sox today, and holy shit did they ever. I put the game on the radio walking home from the gym this afternoon thinking it would probably be the end of the second, maybe, but no, it was still the top of the bat-around five-run first, which saw Brett Lawrie put the first pitch of the ballgame out of the park, apparently (I mean, this is what they told me, and on the radio that is all I have to go on). Big ups, perhaps the biggest, to Alan Ashby, who found it within himself to call nonsense on the safety squeeze even when it works, even as part of a ridiculous five-run start to a game in a series the Blue Jays had already one; Ashby was like, it worked here, but it often doesn't, and I just don't like that play. Ashby.


All kinds of zany doings in this one, with basically a million dingers, including one from Rajai, which was cool because he also just totally lost a ball in the sun (it was scored a double because baseball is hopeless which is part of its appeal frankly). Just a great big sloppy mess of a great time, in short. I would like to note two things in closing, the first of which is that today is Dave Steib's birthday, and he was an enormous asshole with a great moustache and a filthy slider and one of the best pitchers of the 1980s and a guy who lost no-hitters in the ninth in consecutive starts in absurd circumstances so happy 55th; the second is that even though the internet tells me he does not regularly do this, I am certain that Red Sox shortstop Michael Anthony Avilés came to the plate to "Dance Yourself Clean." Or maybe they were playing it because of something else or something. But I know what I heard, and I liked it.

So yeah, a sweep in Boston, and we're back to a mere three games out of the Wild Card. I have become pretty sure that the Blue Jays are going to hover around .500 and totally dick with my head for the remainder of this 2012 season. It'll be OK.


KS

Blue Jays 11, Indians 9; Blue Jays 3, Indians 0: First Bats, then Arms

such dudes man just SUCH dudes

Hey, a great big hot mess of an 11-9 game is just the ticket for a hot Saturday afternoon in July, but let's hear it for the ever-dependable Carlos Villanueva who took the hill Sunday and allowed but three hits over six innings. Jason Frasor, who has been OK, put in a scoreless seventh, and Darren Oliver, who has been astounding, worked two shutout innings to close it out with his pretty dang choice 1.38 ERA. Pitching! Let's have some more of that! Maybe right away, too, since it's the New York for three! Boy, the Yankees are really running away with the division, aren't they? But I'm way less interested in the 9.5 games that separate the Yankees and the Blue Jays than the 1.5 games that separate the Blue Jays from the second Wild Card. And yeah, there are bunch of teams clustered together right there in the standings, but many of those teams are clown teams bro and therefore of no lasting concern. 


Playoffs? Almost certainly not, and yet: playoffs.


KS

Royals 11, Blue Jays 3; Blue Jays 6, Royals 3; Blue Jays 4, Royals 1; Royals 9, Blue Jays 6: Can This Really Be All We Are?

where have you gone, ricky ro?

While far from the worst butt, a four-game split with the Kansas City Royals at home is still firmly on the butt spectrum. I am genuinely pleased that this reborn Brett Cecil had another pretty good start (that's three of four, right?), and I always enjoy the work of Carlos Villanueva, but the sad tale of Ricky Romero renders all that moot, kind of, in that it is so bad it makes you want to forget about all Blue Jays starting pitching except for Brandon Morrow oh wait he is out for weeks. I believe it was Stoeten who said on the DJF podcast the other day that for all the awfulness of watching this once and future boss (my words not his) struggle so mightily out there, Ricky Romero is sort of doing the lord's work, in that he (along with the until-recently-winless Cliff Lee) is helping show yet again how dumb and pointless pitcher wins are as a stat. Ricky Romero is 8-3! What a great first half! Except he is awful! And he knows it! And it is clearly killing him! Note however that it can never kill us, because I am still firmly in this man's corner in the style of a NJPW Young Lion or possibly a squire of some kind, bringing him cool drinks between innings (in my heart). 


In other news, Jose Bautista continues to be utterly ripshit. I fucking love this guy. Hey did you know who he credits with turning his career around? Blue Jays hitting coach Dwayne Murphy, and motherfucking Clarence "Cito" Gaston motherfuckers.

yeah that's right

Is that Jerry Howarth behind him? If it isn't, it should be, because he owns too. 


In closing I would like to salute once more the fine people at DJF, who have started posting annotated win probability graphics after every game, which is probably the best idea in basbeall coverage in ever. Here are my two favourites from this Royals series, first this:

And then from last night:

An excellent idea excellently executed imo.


KS

Blue Jays 7, Angels 5: Adam Lind, Home Run Hero

home run hero adam lind amidst several lessers

I am not going to act like I thought Adam Lind had even a little bit more to give, even after he tore it up in Triple A, which, I mean, he'd better have torn it up in Triple A, as I may well have said at the time (I am unwilling to check). So yeah it came as a full-on surprise to me that Lind jacked not one but two entirely credible dingers last night, leading the Blue Jays to victory with his mighty wallops. Other cool things that happened twice last night include Rajai Davis stealing two bases, which is way less surprising than Rajai getting on, because on those rare occasions he reaches he just takes bases at will man he just straight up takes them. It is always somewhat more surprising when E5 swipes a couple, but swipe them he did! All of these cool things happened in support of the totally useful Carlos Villanueva, who just goes out and pitches completely OK-ly in whatever role he's cast in, and just like that, the Blue Jays did not make me sad on this night. That's all it took: all of those many things.


KS

Indians 5, Toronto 4: What Can You Even Say

Blargh.

Were I to focus on the positives from last night, I would have to say that by golly, we sure are getting a lot more out of Carlos Villanueva than anybody could have ever expected, and how about another home run from Jose Bautista! Rzepcynski and Frasor sure pitched well out of the pen! But of course the real story here is the Indians' five-run bottom of the ninth. Yes, it was Luis Perez who gave up the Asdrubel Cabrera RBI single and Travis Hafner's mighty wallop of a walk-off grand slam, but I choose to lay most of the blame at the feet of "The Closer" Frank Francisco, who opened up the inning like this: Single. Double. Walk. That is how you turn a four-run lead in the ninth into a shameful, grievous thing. That is exactly how you do it.


KS 

Blue Jays 6, Cardinals 3: One-Hit, Five-Run Innings Are Rad

The yet-to-be-cut Juan Rivera

Carlos Villanueva had another totally solid start, Rauch and Rzepcynski combined for a couple perfectly acceptable innings, and Frank Francisco allowed but a single run in the ninth (which I will take at this point). These were all good and necessary things. But it was the five-run third inning that I would like to draw your attention to, because it was excellent and strange.

Villanueva himself drew a lead-off walk, which was both hilarious and, as it turned out, useful. Escobar walked too, you see, before Hill moved the runners over with a groundout to the right side. The Cards then elected to walk Jose Bautista with first base open, which is probably not a bad call, except that after an Adam Lind sac fly, and a throwing error charged to third baseman Daniel Descalso that was really a blown call at first (yes, the throw pulled Berkman off the bag, but everybody except first base umpire D. J. Reyburn saw Berkman get back in time), Juan Rivera hit a three-run shot to left. 

So that's five runs in -- and only one earned -- on one hit. 

Which is outstanding.

KS