NATS RISE TO GLORY game fourteen

A stupidly long baseball season is full of all sorts of moments, and some of those moments are brighter than others, which accumulate into a mental checklist of "moments". Those "moments" are in turn sorted through when a team actually makes a true and living Rise to Glory, for essential Moments. Thus in all the mundane minutes, you acquire:

moments < "moments" < Moments = Glory.

Last night's game against the Cardinals ended with what I will arbitrarily and with the self-important confidence of an internet person declare the Nationals first "moment" of this season. It was about what you'd expect from a Nationals/Cardinals game - plodding, crafty, threats never being realized. Don't forget this is the Cardinals franchise that not only defeated the Nats in the playoffs two years ago but punked them psychically and broke their spirit, which honestly they've never overcome yet in playoffs. It is a psychic albatross they will still have to cleanse themselves of. But it's a tie game going into extra innings, one of those 1-1 games that to a non-fan you'd go, "One to one? Fuck that." But if you like to sit around drinking cough syrup for leisure and listening to games on internet radio, it was classic baseballing. Top of the tenth, no runs (naturally). Bottom of tenth, two outs, and on comes Yunel Escobar, Cuban emigre to the U.S. to play the baseball, not long after Cuban/U.S. relations thawed for the first time in like half a century. First pitch, Escobar jacks over the fence for walk-off HR victory. The team of course is waiting to mob him at home plate as he rounds, as Cardinals pitcher sheepishly wanders off field, and instead of traditional leaping stomp of home for bearhugs from professional friends all around, Escobar slides headfirst into home, immediately mobbed by smiling faces raining Gatorade splashes in every direction. It was a "moment". It was a very small early season slice of psychic confidence against the team that punked them previously in long-term life. It was the Nationals first time reaching .500 this season. It was hopefully the first "moment" building towards even better Moments.
Nats are 7-7.

Yankees 3, Blue Jays 2: Shucks.

Everybody loves Jeter!

In the bottom of the third, Derek Jeter grounded to short. Yunel Escobar's throw pulled Adam Lind off the bag at first, and Lind attempted a particularly sweepy sweep tag as Jeter sped by. Jeter was called out on what was totally a phantom tag, but rather than throw a fit about it, Jeter put on a kind of pained, ironic smile and started pleading his case. The umpires got together, reversed the call. Yunel Escobar, charged with an error, literally had to be restrained. All the while, Jeter was perfectly chill about everything. Beloved Toronto play-by-play guy Jerry Howarth said something to the effect that Jeter did the right thing by not going ballistic and embarrassing the umpire. "Do you know who else he didn't embarrass, Jerry?" Alan Ashby asked, before answering his own question: "He didn't embarrass himself." And it was like, damn it, he's right. I wanted to hate that he said that, but I couldn't. Jeter, man: everybody loves him, and they're not exactly wrong. One wonders how the captain is dealing with life without Minka? They seemed so happy . . . 


Also, quite a game last night! The Blue Jays went up by two early, and it probably should have been more: Jose Bautista singled in an Escobar walk in the first, and Adam Lind drove in an Eric Thames single before Brett Gardner made a redonkulous grab in left and doubled Bautista off of first (Jose, at the time, was closer to third) to end the inning. At the time it was easy to say, well, Bautista made a mistake being aggressive, and that's cool, it's early. But that's all the Jays would get all night, thanks in large part to Andruw Jones remembering how awesome it can be to be awesome, and stealing a home run from Bautista in the fourth. Brandon Morrow had a decent outing, a textbook quality start (three runs in six innings, which is kind of why the textbook is kind of dumb re: the quality start stat), but alas. 


Back to Jose Bautista for a minute, though, he made a nice catch on a long foul ball by Curtis Granderson!

Also he fouled one off his foot and the crowd was like "lol" which I found to be unsporting!

Jose will strike back against the haters today, though, whilst Ricky Romero will strike out everybody. It is going to be great.


KS

Blue Jays 4, Royals 3: Brett Lawrie Homers and Triples; Jose Bautista Homers and Owns

Call it two.

It's probably crazy to like anything from last night's Blue Jays win over the Royals more than the Brett Lawrie solo shot in the seventh that put Toronto in front for good, but here I am thinking about Jose Bautista's two-run homer in the fourth more than anything else. Luke Hochevar started the inning by plunking Yunel Escobar, who got a little heated up about it. Escobar was probably in the wrong: there really isn't any reason to think there was anything intentional about what had just happened. But Escobar didn't like it. And so after Jose Bautista ripped a ball off the facing of the third deck in left, Bautista lingered for a moment at the plate, staring at Hochevar, and, indeed into the very souls of the haters. It was clearly an act of backing his dude up, even if his dude was wrong and is, to many (though not to me), quite unlikable. Jose Bautista is the best, man. Not unlike Eli, he did it.


Also it is worth noting that this was the first time Ricky Romero wasn't awesome in like six weeks. I'm going to let it slide.


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