Blue Jays 7, Mariners 5: Sweeeeeeeeeeeep

Mike McCoy: lovin' it.

A day after I extended my sympathies to the Mariners and lamented Ichiro Suzuki's slide into submediocraty, Seattle dang near won it late and Ichiro went 3-4. And so I have learned that pity is weak and wrong. Ricky Romero left with a five-run lead but the bases loaded in the eighth, and when Casey Janssen came in, it was like, OK, maybe a couple of these runs will come across, but we're fine, right? Wrong: grand slam, Miguel Olivo. Happily, doubles from Mike McCoy and Rajai Davis, who has not been nearly as awful of late but who is still fundamentally awful, put the Blue Jays ahead for good. Eight of the last ten! One whole game above .500! A mere eight-and-a-half games out of the wild card! Let's do this, whatever this might be.  


Oh yeah also, it was so hot in Toronto yesterday (37C!) they actually played with the roof closed just due to the heat! I don't know that that has ever happened before in TO.


KS

Blue Jays 6, Orioles 5 (F/11): Had I mentioned Adam Lind is your worst nightmare?

Adam Lind, still making his way to the to "Country Grammar."

A walk-off home run washes clean all the muck and despair that came before it. I don't even care right now that Mark Rzepcynski can't get anybody out anymore, or that Yunel Escobar pulled up rather than so much as slide into second on a Corey Patterson sacrifice bunt-attempt in the eighth in maybe the laziest, dumbest thing you will ever see on a baseball diamond. Not interested. Adam Lind ripped Koji Uehara's second pitch of the eleventh inning off the facing of the third deck, so we're good.


The biggest news for the Blue Jays these last few days, though, is the demotion of Kyle Drabek to Triple A Las Vegas, where one hopes he will quickly find his form and of course also his smoke. Apparently getting constantly battered and walking everybody was starting to wear on him psychologically -- and I get that -- so this is no doubt for the best.


Still on the subject of smoke, and specifically the throwing of it, here are the three swinging strikes that second basemen Mike McCoy threw in his 1-2-3 inning of work on Sunday. I find this all very, very awesome. And yes, this is totally lifted from FanGraphs.


First, we have a 1-0 pitch to Carl Crawford:

You can see that it touches the gun at 71 MPH, and you can also see Crawford's immediate disgust at himself. It's extraordinary. 


The very next pitch proved no less sneaky:

See, he brought the heat that time: 73 MPH. If batting is timing, pitching is disrupting that timing, friends.


Finally, an 0-1 to J. D. Drew:

I'm not sure what's going on here but I know that I love it.


KS

Red Sox 16, Blue Jays 4: Yikes.

I would spell it "Veritech" if I were him.

A career-worst start from Brandon Morrow, which is to say nine runs on ten hits and three walks in less than five innings. The best work on the hill for the Blue Jays yesterday came from utility guy Mike McCoy, who became the first Toronto position player to pitch since Frank Menechino (remember him?). A disaster, is what I am saying to you.


Let us reflect, though, on the extent to which Adam Lind continues to tear it up: .331/.368/.580/.947 with 10 HR. Good for him!


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 10, Rangers 3: Adam Lind is Your Worst Nightmare

This man comes to the plate to "Country Grammar." In 2011.

We would all agree, would we not, that five-run firsts are totally the best kind? I can only imagine the agony of Rangers fans (like our own dear Chinballs), though, as they watched starter Matt Harrison give up a single, bunt single, walk, RBI single, RBI walk, visit to the mound, RBI walk, run-scoring double play, and yet another RBI single before the line-out that ended the inning. That is just about the shittiest inning.

Unless you are a Blue Jay, that is, or a Blue Jay enthusiast. Then you are confronted with a choice: did Harrison not have anything last night, or did the Toronto Blue Jays just severely know what they were doing? I for one have chosen to take the latter view. Adam Lind was particularly severe, knocking in five runs on a single and oh yeah two home runs that's right he DID hit two home runs last night now that you mention it that's true. It was one of those nights where everybody hit, except Mike McCoy, but that's cool, Mike McCoy, nobody blames you for being only what God made you in His wisdom. The haters looked on in horror as Jose Bautista went one for three with two walks and scored a run, and maybe the lead story at espn.com right now is about how Jose Bautista is the most feared hitter in baseball; I don't know, you'd have to go see for yourself, probably. 


It would be shabby of me not to mention a fine outing by Jesse Litsch, and another solid performance by the bullpen, which, aside from that singularly epic collapse that will haunt both my dreams and half-waking nightmares forever, has been a pleasant surprise so far.


KS