Blue Jays 13, Orioles 6: Jose Bautista vs. The Haters Still

E5 looking like a cool cool killer in this

Because the world is stupid, not everybody loves Jose Bautista openly and fearlessly, and so on occasion people are going to throw behind Jose Bautista; we know this because we have seen this. For the second time in this still-young season, though, Joseph Batstista has answered this demonstrably self-loathing hateration (in that hating in hating Jose Baustista you are obviously hating part of yourself, and probably one of the better parts of yourself, actually) by launching the shit out of a dinger in that selfsame at bat. That is how you do it, Jose Bautista; that is how you fvkkn do it.

Also Mark Buehrle, just getting out there, hucking it in, let's hear it for that guy. And E5.

KS

Orioles 7, Blue Jays 1; Blue Jays 10, Orioles 7: The Blue Jays' Weekend That Was While I Did Some Other Stuff Actually But I Thought Of Them

Above: the sport of baseball

After getting one-hit by Ubaldo Jimenez on Saturday, the Blue Jays skreeeeeed back (I had "roar" there for a sec but that would not be an appropriate metaphor) with like a million runs today to take the series in Baltimore as well they should. Jose Bautista hit a home run late, which is cheering, because he has been off to a pretty slow first week, and while I am not overly concerned by this I think we would all agree it would own much harder if he began to rake at once? Not to be a Debbie Downer of things but Drew Hutchison seems to have pitched at least somewhat shittily today, with the seven earned runs in less than five innings of work, but let us place this series win squarely in our back pocket and let it dangle out a little like a batting glove and move on, shalllll we.

KS

Catching Up With the Toronto Blue Jays, A Baseball Team That Sucks

uh oh

The Blue Jays have won four in a row, but it doesn't really feel that way. They dropped two out of three at home to the Orioles -- a team I have chosen not to believe in lest they overturn all that I have believed about run differential and all that flows from it since first reading Bill James so many years ago -- and the roof got stuck open and it rained on everybody (well, not everybody). The sweep in Boston that followed made for some excellent lazy afternoon radio, don't get me wrong, but man this season has been and continues to be a drag. 

I don't know man. I really don't know.

KS

Orioles 6, Blue Jays 4; Orioles 8, Blue Jays 2; Sweet Cleansing Rain; Blue Jays 8, Yankees 7 (F/11); Yankees 2, Blue Jays 1; Blue Jays 8, Yankees 5: Aaaaaand Jose Bautista is Gone for the Year Now

this Ichiro thing is still nuts imo

Things in Baltimore went hideously: the Blue Jays dropped both of the games they actually got in, and Jose Bautista left in like the third inning of his second game back, and now he's done for the year with all kinds of wrist awfulness, which is a pretty big concern long term if you are inclined to worry about such things and I am very much so inclined yes. Then, mercifully, came the rains, postponing the third game and allowing them to just play a bunch of awesome old Tom Cheek calls on the radio, which was a welcome diversion from this current season which, it gives me no pleasure to say, has sucked. And so to New York, where Colby Rasmus ended his 0-for-eternity with a home run to win one in extras, Ricky Romero put in his best start in ages in a loss, and Yunel Escobar returned from paternity leave a monster, and there you go, two out of three from the Yankees, who actually haven't been great for the last six weeks or so actually. The AL East has been so weird this year: the Yankees are totally good but aren't playing that way; Baltimore is still way over .500 with a seriously negative run differential, which really isn't a thing that happens that often; Tampa is doing it with all pitching and no bats; and Boston just pulled off a Baseball Mogulesque salary dump of epic proportions, so ruined is their year. 

This totally would have been the year for the Blue Jays to do something if the roster had not, like, ulcerated. 

KS

Blue Jays 4, Orioles 1: Gladness Brooms

dingerz for days

I was totally in and out with last night's game, and yet I was present for all for Blue Jays solo home runs: E5 (again!), Rajai (again!), Lawrie, and Rasmus. I mention this because I found it awesome. Less awesome is that Brandon Morrow, who pitched well, had to leave the game after getting smoked by a batted ball in the seventh, but it is a dangereuse game we play is it not mon chéri?


Hey also, have you noticed that the AL East is utterly nuts? Like, here it is:

It's not just me, right? That is legitimately nuts, isn't it? 


KS

Blue Jays 8, Orioles 6: This Really Is How This Should Be Going

cool snag bro

Yeah, right? Brett Lawrie with a nice night, Ricky Romero, if not yet in touch with his truest/bossest self at least not walking everybody, and that's all you need to beat the Orioles, because they are totally still the Orioles. That is all they are. 


KS

Blue Jays 6, Orioles 2: The Hope Here is that Maybe the Orioles are Still Just the Orioles

Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista reject your suggestion that this looks goofy

I know they're in first place almost fifty games into the season, but I have not been shook for even a second by the Orioles so far this year. I have seen very little evidence to suggest that they are even going to be all that OK by the end of the year, let alone stick around at the top of the AL East. I am taking last night's 6-2 Blue Jays win as confirmation that I am right about this and probably also about everything else ever, too. Drew Hutchinson put in a heck of an effort of seven solid, scoreless innings, including one weird one where he allowed three walks and a hit, but no runs (good job picking a dude of second, Jeff Mathis!). Kelly Johnson returned from a hamstring injury, and went 3-4 with a double and a home run, but is not all the way better, and Yunel Escobar is having groin issues, so all of that is a drag, but there are options. There are things. Also, look at this rad .gif I have lifted from DJF that shows a dude really minding that he missed catching E5's sixteenth yeah sixteenth dinger of the year in circumstances that make the miss completely inexcusable (by which I mean he was wearing a glove):

That is a play that has to be made.


KS

Orioles 5, Blue Jays 2: Don't Sweep Me Bro

shucks

I am a bad Blue Jays fan. I turned the game off when the Orioles scored their first run off Drew Hutchison on a mere sacrifice fly, figuring the way they've been swinging the bats this week, they were sunk. Not exactly, as it turned out, as they did manage a whopping two runs before kicking the ball around and then getting dinged by dingers. 


A sweep at the hands of the (first place!) Orioles is shameful. But Ricky Romero takes the hill at home tonight, and I expect him to get through the Mariners in about two hours. Maybe it will be great! 


KS

Orioles 3, Blue Jays 0: The Baltimore Juggernaut Rolls On

dang

A don't know, man. Kyle Drabek threw some measure of smoke, but gave up a couple of home runs. The defense kicked the ball around pretty good, but it didn't really matter. Nobody hit. Perhaps they will tonight? 


KS

Orioles 2, Blue Jays 1: Best of Times, Blurst of Times for Eric Thames

best

So in the third inning, Eric Thames drew the Blue Jays even with the Orioles at one with a solo home run that made it into, like, the warehouse part of Camden Yards. You know, the like, warehouse part? He crushed it. 


In the fourth, however, a Matt Weiters opposite-field fly to the track totally bounced off Eric Thames and into the crowd for what would prove to be the winning run. Oops:

blurst

Kind of a drag, too, because Henderson Alvarez was really rolling last night, at least after that bases-loaded situation in the first that led to a run scoring on a double play. Two runs on five hits in seven innings? Even against the Orioles that is a solid.


Ah well.


KS


EDIT: the unstoppable DJF has it all covered in animated .gif form!

Blue Jays 9, Orioles 2: Much, Much More Like It

yeah man just do this instead of trying to steal home on an 0-2 pitch
with two away and the bases loaded and Jose Bautista at the dish

Kyle Drabek, thrower of smoke! Brett Lawrie and E5, belters of dingers! Kevin Gregg, loathsome ex-Blue Jay who once exhibited both the audacity and the temerity to argue with Cito on-field after being pulled for being horrible, lit up for three runs as part of a seven-run bat-around sixth! Yes sir, this one pretty much had it all, if you are me. What's next for these first-place (also "these 5-4," but work with me here) Blue Jays, you ask? Well, first an off day, which is unacceptable, but after that it is the Rays for three! 


That could be neat!

KS

Orioles 6, Blue Jays 4: They Stunk, That's What Happened

thank you for trying brett lawrie

Instead of listening to the bullpen blow this one, I took in a matinee screening of Jiro Dreams of Sushi. I hope you did, too. 


KS

Orioles 7, Blue Jays 5: The Greatest Indignity

*swoomp*

I am not going to front like I caught more than just a little bit of this one. And it sounds like it was a pretty entertaining game, with seven home runs and some lead changes and whatnot, fine. But we can't be losing to the Orioles, man, come on; what is this all about. Brandon Morrow should have sliced this lineup open like a tonton, but instead allowed four runs in seven innings of work. While that is not nightmarishly bad or anything, and Alan Ashby assures me Morrow pitched well, it is not as awesome as one would hope or indeed expect. And then the bullpen just messed up, basically.


Taking the next two in a row is going to prove vital re: my approval.


KS