Blue Jays 8, Pirates 5: Travis Snider Answers from the Mouth of His Cannon

still loving the new uniforms btw

Only a day after my most recent denunciation of Travis Snider, dude hit a couple of doubles, drove in a pair on a weird groundout, stole third, and threw a guy out from left. That is all awesome, however I would be remiss if I did not point out to you that he hit like .347 or something in spring training last year, so while you might be thinking this all might auger well I am here to say that we don't know how it augers. We just don't know. How. It augers.  Also, thinking about the Pirates for a minute, isn't it something how the Pirates traded for A. J. Burnett on the condition that they wouldn't actually have to pay him really any money but then in a bunting drill Burnett fouled one off his eye and that shit is broken and he's out for months? Oh, Pirates . . .


KS

Rays 6, Blue Jays 5: And Yet There Was Much to Like

This close to a triple play!

Maybe it was the lawn-mowing-perfect-summer-Saturdayness of it all, but I enjoyed the heck out of yesterday's long, lazy game. Which is saying something, because Shawn Camp and Jesse Litsch combined to ruin Louis Perez's solid start with a three-run seventh (curse you, B. J. Upton) and the Blue Jays' comeback ultimately fell a run short. And actually, this one-run loss came on a day when Jose Bautista totally misread an Adam Lind drive off the wall in the first. There can be absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind (least of all Bautista's) that he should have scored on that play, but he didn't, and yet here I am, utterly undespondent. I just really like that Eric Thames went 2-4 with a home run late (after a nine-pitch at bat!); that E5 homered and walked; and that J. P. Arencibia doubled and threw out three baserunners (and nearly picked a dude off first, which is arguably the ultimate form of catcher awesomeness). Even Bautista, while not at his best, doubled, walked, and threw a guy out at third, you know? Just all kind of cool things happening yesterday, even if the end result isn't what I might have had in mind. 


Hey, did you hear that A. J. Burnett allowed six straight extra base hits the other day? Isn't that awesome? I can't think of a single baseball player that, broadly speaking, I don't want to do well, beyond a simple "I hope they do not do well against the Blue Jays" -- it's just not how I enjoy the game, and I'm not suggesting this is better or worse than a legitimately hate-filled approach, which is a totally viable way to enjoy sports, obviously -- except for maybe A. J. Burnett. And so his recent struggles have, well, they haven't made me glad, exactly, but I have certainly chuckled. Not chuckling: A. J. Burnett.

A. J. Burnett, shown here not chuckling.

The struggles of A. J. Burnett make up for things like the Yankees hitting three grand slams in a single game against Oakland this week (they batted sixteen times with the bases loaded, which is maybe the even crazier stat). 


Finally, how did I not mention previously that the Arizona Diamondbacks this week fielded an infield that was identical to a 2007 Blue Jays infield, and that according to Retrosheet, that has probably never happened before? McDonald, Hill, Roberts, Overbay. That is nutty! 


Actually finally, here is a neat picture where you can see the field reflected in Tim Tschida's mask. Neat!

Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

KS

Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4: It is Wrong of Me to Always Expect Kyle Drabek to Throw Smoke

Rajai Davis, a guy who just got picked off.

Kyle Drabek didn't have it at all yesterday, and didn't even make it out of third inning. Against all odds, however, this game ended up being kind of a honey anyway. Drabek's five runs in two-and-a-third is actually kind of a miracle, in that he gave up seven hits and four walks (league leader, baby!) and just looked awful. It could have been much worse. Some close calls went against him, but that's the way it goes when you're a rookie starter and you're facing a team of rad veterans. This is unjust, but it is also fine. The bullpen, once again, was great: Frasor (in the third? how the relatively mighty have fallen a little), Camp, Rzepczynski, and Francisco combined to allow no hits and only two base runners the rest of the way, which put the Blue Jays in a position to beg, borrow and steal their way back into it. 


On the stealing, actually: stop it. This is crazy. Dudes are getting picked off constantly, and if I see another inning end on a strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out at third base I am going to keep on making frustrated noises at the radio and, later, highlights on my computer. And you don't want that.


To the bats, then: things started well enough on the day with Rajai Davis' lead-off triple, which is actually way better than a lead-off home run from an aesthetic perspective. In the second, Juan Rivera extended his hitting streak to nine but I hate him anyway. Bautista, also an object of hate but not from me, ripped a double and stole third, which owned. Then, and most notably, I think, Mike McCoy (who is only as God made him) decided to get all awesome, hitting his first career home run in the fifth, and making a ludicrous catch in the seventh to start an inning-ending double play. But his newfound awesomeness failed him in the top of the ninth, alas, as Mariano Rivera compelled him to fly out weakly to Nick Swisher, leaving the potential game-tying run at second (Jose Molina doubled after an eight-pitch at bat -- what the H?).


In closing I would like to mention that I accidentally turned the game on to the Spanish feed, and you would not believe how excited the play-by-play guy was. I thought something truly astonishing must have happened, so I quickly switched things over to find out, and it turned out Bautista had made a nice throw to the plate to hold a runner at third. That's it. But you'd have thought he'd thrown three guys out and delivered a baby. It was wild.


KS 

Blue Jays 6, Yankees 5 (F/10): YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

Travis Snider and Ricky Romero share . . . A Moment.

When both Yunel Escobar and Travis Snider struck out with the bases loaded in the sixth inning, I was of the opinion that this game sucked. Snider seemed to agree, too, as he indicated by snapping his bat over his knee à la mode de Bo.  But we were both wrong, as it turned out, because we had failed to allow for a triumphant comeback in the bottom of the ninth against Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer in the history of baseball, no big deal. 


Down by two, Escobar led off the ninth with a ringing double, and after a Snider ground-out moved him to third, he scored on a wild pitch as the Yankees did their best to pitch around Jose Bautista (they were right to want no part of him after his earlier rocket of a home run to left in a decisive blow against the haters, as I see it). Bautista went first to third on an Adam Lind single, setting the stage for a squeeze play to tie it in the bottom of the ninth against Mariano Rivera. It was at least as cool as that sounds, too: John MacDonald managed a perfect bunt down the line towards first on a tricky high pitch, and Bautista darted home on the safety squeeze, beating the tag after Texeira's fine play and flip to home. 


Jon Rauch wasn't all that hot in the top of the tenth, walking two, but no real damage was done, so who am I to complain? Rivera understandably did not come back out to work the tenth -- he was lucky Eric Chavez was able to go 5-3 for a slick double play to end the ninth -- so it was Ivan Nova who gave up the leadoff single to E5, the selfsame E5 who, two outs later, would race home on a Travis Snider shot to the wall to win it.  Full game highlights are here, and you really should click them, on account of the extent to which they own (that extent, for the record, is  so hard).


An almost perfect night! Did Kyle Drabek throw smoke? Alas, he did not. Did A. J. Burnett fail utterly? Tragically, no. But those few shortcomings aside, this was a hell of a game. 


KS