2023 Game One-Hundred-One: Blue Jays 6, Dodgers 3 (F/11)

 

of all the guys!

I went to bed with the game tied at two through seven, as this extremely west coast road trip rolls on, and so missed the home runs from Matt Chapman and Max Muncy (that funky Muncy) in the eighth, and, most crucially of all, Daulton Varsho's three-run double in the eleventh to win it. Hey let's hear it not just for José Berrios and his fine start, but for what turned out to be six full innings of very nearly scoreless relief from the bullpen, two of them from Jay Jackson, who has really done great!  

KS 

2023 Game One Hundred: Blue Jays 4, Mariners 3

 

yay

Given recent events, I would not say that I had perfect faith that the Blue Jays one-run lead—Santiago Espinal's seventh-inning squeaker through the left side having built upon the earlier boppings of both Brandon Belt and Vladdy—would necessarily hold up; I did not believe it with my whole entire being. And yet! After an uncharacteristically rough couple of days, the bullpen returned to being kind of great, and ably closed out what I think we would probably all agree to have been a pretty encouraging start from Alek Manoah (better than the last one, not as good as the first one?). And so the Blue Jays salvage a win to wrap this super-tense series of one-run games that felt every bit like playoff baseball, which is to say that I sorted of hated every inning of it? And yet could not look away? Even a little?

Although it is obviously not ideal to have dropped the first two series coming out of the All-Star break, I really feel very good about the Blue Jays' 55-45 record through the first one hundred games of the season (only sixty-two to go!). This is the same record through one hundred that they managed last year, and, to my surprise, there have only been six seasons where the Blue Jays have fared better (the 2016 and 1993 teams won 56; 1991 won 57; 1992 won 59; and perhaps unsurprisingly the 1985 Blue Jays are at the top of list with 63 [which is so many]). We currently sit in a playoff spot, and, barring something weird happening out west, will hold one the rest of the way should we be able to play slightly better than both the Yankees and Red Sox, which, though not a sure thing, certainly seems like a possible thing. I'm all for it! Let's really try!  

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Nine: Mariners 9, Blue Jays 8

 

Téo, you're killing me, buddy

This game was bananas! Two three-home run innings? The Mariners hitting home runs on the back-to-back pitches, and then the Blue Jays doing exactly the same? A five-run Mariners seventh (that spelled the end of Nate Pearson's run on the big league roster)? Guess which one of those occurrences was an enormous drag to me and to my enjoyment! It is nearly ludicrous that it was Téo once more who dealt the final blow, but here we are, happy for Téo but also fairly miffed about this one more broadly.

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Eight: Mariners 3, Blue Jays 2

 

how it started . . .

. . . and how, alas, it is going

Good for Téo, is I guess the best I can say about this one? When I went to bed midway through the seventh (the game started just after eleven here—just after eleven), I would not say that the game seemed well in hand, but it did seem, well, in hand. But not so much! Much has been made of bringing in Kirk to pinch hit in a spot where a double play would have been a killer (as indeed it ended up being!) but I don't think you can approach a pinch hitting situation in any other spirit than "who do I think is likeliest to get a hit?" (as I have no doubt mentioned previously, managerial second-guessing is just not my favourite anyway). That Téo, whose last game as a Blue Jay saw him hit two home runs in what I was so sure we were going to end up thinking of forever as The Téo Game, ended up walking this one off with a ringing double over George Springer's head and off the wall in right, is an objectively neat thing to have happened, not unlike Marcus Semien walking off the A's at the SkyDome in what I suppose must have been late 2021, as the thoughtful Tony Kemp stood out there in left field for a little while to take it all in, and just be with it all for a moment or too extra. Blessings of the universe, I suppose. 

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Seven: Blue Jays 4, Padres 0

 

I love it when Vladdy gets "fielding psyched"

Late home runs from both Vladdy (he's heating up!) and Alejandro Kirk (maybe him too! 3-3 on the day!) paired just wonderfully with another excellent home start by Chris Bassitt, and a combined three nifty innings from Mayza, Swanson, and Romano. It was a pleasure to see the Padres, who we have not seen often, and all their cool young stars in their excellent team colours. Would I have preferred a series win? Sure I would have. But a regular season "series" is kind of a fake idea, isn't it? And yet how else are we to organize our thoughts throughout the one-hundred-and-sixty-two gameness of the season? How indeed. How; indeed. 

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Six: Padres 2, Blue Jays 0

 

Yu Darvish: a longer guy than I had previously appreciated

A tough one, to be sure, as the only runs came in the fifth after José Berrios seemed to have the runner hung up between second and third to end the inning. But Bo's throw from second (he'd snuck in behind the runner) to Chapman at third, while not a disaster, was not what it needed to be (I wonder if Bo himself has had any self-recriminations about it at all?). Either way, obviously, there was nothing doing here for the Blue Jays bats, so a tough one, like I say. One looks at this Padres lineup and wonders why they're not like ten games or so better than they have been so far? We have dropped the series to them now, though, so we're doing our part. 

KS 

2023 Game Ninety-Five: Padres 9, Blue Jays 1

 

you know what, fair enough

It really didn't matter who was pitching, or how poorly, because for the first time in a week or so the boys truly did not bop, but it is hard not to be discouraged that Alek Manoah's second start since he's come back up was such a mess. Ninety-two pitches to get through three? A forty-one pitch first? Five walks against no strikeouts? It is true that he was getting low-key squeezed in the first, but you can't expect to get a lot of close calls when you are basically not throwing strikes. Maybe Manoah gets another start or two, but with Ryu quite possibly coming back in as little as a week, that might be about it? I do take some consolation in the fact that all five AL East teams lost on this night (for only the second time this year!), so the Blue Jays gave up no ground, but what a drag. Coming into this one, the Blue Jays had won eight of their previous nine (everything but the no-hitter), and yet there I was, exchanging dire texts with my two pals with whom I text about the Blue Jays, as early as the second inning. We did not do a good job of keeping things in perspective.  

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Four: Blue Jays 7, Diamonbacks 5

 

this is exactly how you do it

With his fist-pumping sac fly in the fifth, the sixth-inning pickoff play where he snuck in behind the runner just in time for Danny Jansen's slick throw, and the eighth-inning double wherein he started his slide what felt like several body-lengths too early, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seems to have maybe had his most fun day ever? Danny Jansen—he of the slick throw in the sixth—cleared the bases with a double in the eighth (that same eighth of Vladdy's truly baffling and wonderful slide) to put this one away, and really, he's been hitting so well that it hasn't been that big a deal that Alejandro Kirk has struggled (he'll come around, maybe?). Kikuchi pitched a good one, just as Berrios and Bassitt before him this series, and there you have it: a three-game sweep against a good team to start the second half as well as you could hope. The Blue Jays have closed the gap on both the Orioles atop the Wild Card standings and the Rays atop the actual AL East to such an extent that all things feel possible, if not quite likely. This is a good place to be.

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Three: Blue Jays 5, Diamondbacks 2

 

touch 'em all, Bo

A two-run, eighth-inning homer Bo Bichette home run gave the Blue Jays a little room to breathe in this one, which is good, because Jordan Romano is still experiencing a little lower back tightness, and so the ninth fell to Yimi, who is largely back on track, to my great relief (slight pun), as I am as ride-or-die as regards Yimi Garcia as I have ever been about any Blue Jays reliever ever, for reasons that remain enigmatic even to me. And yet here we extremely are.

KS

2023 Game Ninety-Two: Blue Jays 7, Diamondbacks 2

 

what like that's hard?

After winning the All-Star Home Run Derby in sikk fashion (tended to throughout by the friendful caretaking of Bo Bichette, and aided by a crucial late video chat with Teoscar Hernandez [Téo!]), Vladdy elected to homer in his first at bat of the second half. I am told that this is the first time that anyone has done just that (homered in their first AB after winning the derby), which is surprising, given how cool of a thing it seems to do? It was just one of several excellent Blue Jays ideas on this night. The Diamondbacks are a surprisingly good and fun team this season, and it was nice to see the returning Lourdes Gurriel Jr. receive such a warm welcome (I don't even mind that Gabriel Moreno threw a guy out and homered [and he never homers]). Lots of fun all around!

KS  

2023 Game Ninety-One: Blue Jays 4, Tigers 3

 

Daulton Varsho, just as merry as you please!

In the end—this is to say, after Danny Jansen's two-run homer tied the game in the ninth, Daulton Varsho's scurrying scurry home on a surprising (even to him!) Nathan Lukes double (George Springer is on paternity leave [congratulations!]) brought the Blue jays first lead of hte game in the tenth, and Jordan Romano's high-wire act closed it out in the bottom half—this felt like the best possible way to head into the All-Star break. At the end of the eighth, though, I was pretty miserable! I felt like we were really blowing it! Everything in baseball happens to so slowly and then it happens all at once, though (as has been observed).

So where does this leave us, then, at the break? Honestly in a pretty good spot, all things considered: the Blue Jays are tied with the Astros for the second wild card spot, five games behind the Orioles for WC1, but only seven (that's really not that many more!) behind the AL East-leading Rays, who have of late struggled for the first time all season (I don't feel bad about it). It would certainly take quite a run to pass either Baltimore or Tampa, but neither seems nearly the obstacle they did a month ago, and the teams lurking just outside the playoff seedings—the Aaron Judgeless Yankees; the Red Sox, who play mediocre baseball against seemingly everyone but the Blue Jays—do not seem especially menacing right now? Ah, I see that the Red Sox have in fact won their last five, which is no mean feat, so maybe I should feel at least a little menaced. But I honestly don't! Ninety-one games into the season, I still feel like the Blue Jays should probably have about ninety wins at the end of it all, and that should probably get them in? To the playoffs I don't really enjoy watching? Fingers crossed!

KS

2023 Game Ninety: Tigers 2, Blue Jays 0

 

in which Kevin Gausman's run-support
issues officially bottom out

I choose not to be bummed out by the Blue Jays falling victim to only the twentieth combined no-hitter in MLB history, and instead have chosen to welcome the Blue Jays being blessed with only the twentieth combined no-hitter in MLB history. We're going to lose like what, seventy games this year if everything goes really well? And none of them will be any more interesting than this, right? I thought it was kind of neat. 

KS

2023 Game Eight-Nine: Blue Jays 12, Tigers 2

 

welcome back, Big Puma

Definitely to my surprise, and also slightly to my concern, Alek Manoah returns! And yet my concern is demonstrably misplaced: a run on eight hits, no walks, and strikeouts in six complete? Even against the somewhat slight lineup like the Tigers are fielding this year, that is super encouraging. And he didn't even need to be all that good, given the extent to which the boys elected to bop: Merrifield's third homerun in two days! a Springer dinger! three more hits for Bo! What a lovely ballpark, too. Just a really good and nice game of Blue Jays baseball start to finish. If Manoah is even fifth-starter-good the rest of the way, it will be a huge boost in the second half, and if he's anything more than that, we could really "make some noise" in the rapidly tightening AL East (the Rays are losing sort of often now). 

KS

2023 Games Eighty-Seven and Eighty-Eight: Blue Jays 6, White Sox 2 (F/11), Blue Jays 5, White Sox 4 (let's play two!)

 

it's like anything else: you get low, and you dig

Not a whole lot of 6-2 games go scoreless through ten, I bet! I can't think of any that I've seen, for example, and I have seen a bunch of baseball games; like a bunch. José Berrios was about as good as he gets, and Lance Lynn, who has really had quite a career but who had fallen on Manoah-level hard times so far this season, all of a sudden was amazing again? And when the Blue Jays finally scored, it wasn't like they were pounding the ball off the White Sox relievers: it was ground ball, ground ball, ground ball . . . just pitiless, relentless BABIP stuff. Sounds good to me! The evening game had Kikuchi giving what seems like the median Kikuchi performance (emotionally, perhaps not statistically): four runs over five innings, which is obviously less than stellar, but just enough to keep you in it, so long as "Two Hit" Whit Merrifield's two hits are both home runs, and Bo goes four-for-five like it was normal to keep doing that. We're gaining! Things are looking up! 

KS

2023 Game Eighty-Six: Blue Jays 4, White Sox 3

 

attaboy (attaboy [attaboy])

The Blue Jays winning on a two-run Vladdy homer in the eighth after a nice start from Chris Bassitt and a scoreless three innings of Pearson, Swanson, and Romano in relief was honestly exactly what I wanted out of this one. So imagine my delight! The other Blue Jays runs came on a two-run double from Whit Merrifield, who, true to his excellent "Two Hit Whit" nickname, singled, too. Only six Blue Jays hits all night, but they were unusually well timed.

KS

2023 Game Eighty-Five: Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 4

 

hooooooooooo boy

At this point, why wouldn't Jordan Romano give up a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the ninth in a game made close only by the two runs Eric Swanson allowed on three hits and a walk in the seventh? Seems about right! Brandon Belt homered twice, and Kevin Gausman was good again (no surprise there) but only went five, leaving a decent amount of work for the bullpen. Yimi proved nails in bailing out Tim Mayza, and Trevor Richards (everybody's favourite guy now) struck out three, but Swanson, after being fantastic his first twenty or so appearances, has struggled in the twenty or so since, and it has been a genuine drag to behold. The Blue Jays have now lost all six games they've played against the Red Sox this season after going I believe 16-3 against them last year, and the Red Sox are now 12-1 against the Blue Jays and Yankees, but ten or eleven games below .500 against everybody else. This is all pretty weird! A quick glance at the standings reveals that things are not nearly as bad as they could be after getting swept at home on Canada Day weekend, as none of the other teams in or around the wild card scene were able to string any wins together.  A-game-and-a-half out of the last two spots, and five-and-a-half out of the top spot is by no means insurmountable, unlike the division, which has felt a done deal since about the third week of the season (Tampa was very reluctant to lose any games!). Six games on the road against the AL Central (three in Chicago, three in Detroit) gives us a chance to pull into the All-Star break in decent shape, and I'd like to think that's how it'll go! 

KS 

2023 Game Eighty-Four: Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 6

 

it was significantly less close than this photograph implies

I was pretty sure Cavan Biggio's eight-inning liner that landed foul by about a foot and would have scored two more runs in the Blue Jays' seemingly endless two-out rally was going to be the thing that haunted me (and indeed us all) about this one, but no, it was actually Bo Bichette thrown out at home to end the game just after Vladdy delivered a sharp single to right with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, down by two. Bo was out by kind of a lot, which is generally speaking not the runner's fault but the third-base coach's, and Rivera, to my eye, really didn't offer Bo a whole lot of help here: Springer, scoring ahead of him, was urging Bo to follow, and Rivera changed his go go go sign to a woah there far too late for Bo to have actually held up (this is, to me, the worst kind of counsel a third-base coach can offer), and the result was a kind of halting half-step about twenty feet or so from the plate, which isn't going to help anybody or anything. It was kind of a mess! And yet I don't really mind that he went for it. Sending Bo—or Bo going, however you want to think about it—forces the right fielder to make a good throw, and the catcher to field it well, and you see mistakes on either end of that all the time. I don't think it was a bad decision, so much as bad execution, but really, had Rivera not been weird about it, Bo probably would have been out anyway, because the Red Sox did everything right. Sometimes you play aggressively to put pressure on the other team's defense, and sometimes the other team's defense proves up to the challenge, and that's that; that's just one of the ways baseball can go. I'm really not upset about it, just lightly haunted. 

KS

2023 Game Eighty-Three: Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 0

 

fiddlesticks

José Berrios was actually kind of rolling right along until those three home runs came sort of all of a sudden. I know three home runs seem like a lot to just kind of a lot to occur all of a sudden but that's really what happened! I was as surprised as anybody. He might as well have given up ten, if the Blue Jays were only going to manage three hits (that is how many they managed, just the three).

KS

2023 Game Eighty-Two: Blue Jays 2, Giants 1

 

so important

I will set aside my objection to Thursday's game being played in the evening rather than the afternoon (it's always getaway day for somebody!) and instead focus on the very hanging curveball Vladdy hit a very long way in the sixth to score the Blue Jays only runs, fortunately the only runs they would need given Chris Bassitt's three-hit, three-walk, twelve-strikeout six innings of work (Swanson and Mayza added clean innings; Romano less so). Santiago Espinal really bailed out Kirk's throw down to second on a stolen base attempt in the ninth, scooping a somewhat errant throw and applying the tag for a crucial out in an inning that was getting away from Jordan Romano, and it is always a pleasure to see Espinal make a nice little play. He is A Liked Guy.

KS  

2023 Game Eighty-One: Blue Jays 6, Giants 1

 

let's: go

A five-run first inning! I can't remember the last time we had one of those! What a treat! How fortuitous for it to happen on a bullpen day, too, when you might neat a little extra, right? And yet the true "bullpen day" component of the bullpen day—first Trevor Richards for three, then Bowden Francis for four—allowed just the one run, and not even all that much traffic, really; never a truly worrying amount, at any rate. This was a pretty merry way to mark the halfway point of a fairly strange season (though all seasons sort of are, I suppose): few among us would have predicted Alek Manoah's slide from a top starter to an unworkable one, or even Vladdy's much milder though very real struggles, and yet here we are at the halfway point in a totally suitable and appropriate position. The Blue Jays have had the best record in baseball since I believe May 26th (it has certainly not felt that way on a day-to-day basis!), and sit in the final Wild Card spot, though a full ten games out of the AL East lead (the Rays, though cooler of late, remain on pace for 107 wins, which is not something you can really plan for, probably). This is something like the Blue Jays sixth or seventh best first-half in team history, which is a good reminder that every season in which you have a shot at ninety wins is truly a blessing. I think it is important not to lose sight of that.

KS    

2023 Game Eighty: Giants 3, Blue Jays 0

 

at least there was a guy throwing underhand 

It is never a great feeling to to first and third, nobody out, and come away without a run (R.I.P. to the Blue Jays; they never scored), but when it happens in the first inning, how bad is it really? Eight more chances! That's what you'll get! Surely we'll push somebody across! And yet no: Kevin Gausman's twelve strikeouts (including the 1500th of his fine career) over seven innings were sort of for naught, as the Blue Jays somehow managed not to score despite eight hits (a possible factor: they drew no walks, and were struck out seventeen times, which is just so many times). I enjoyed our two days in a Wild Card spot! Felt like old times! 

KS

2023 Game Seventy-Nine: Blue Jays 12, Athletics 1

 

form is so crucial

Given the extent to which the boys elected to bop on Sunday—home runs from Springer and Biggio; a bunch of hits from pretty much everybody else—it was not, strictly speaking, necessary for Yusei Kikuchi to allow just one run on two hits over seven complete innings pitched in his best-yet start as a Toronto Blue Jay, but that's totally what he did, though. What a delight it is when Kikuchi is rolling! Everybody loves that guy! He tries so hard! And at the end of action Sunday night, the Blue Jays found themselves in sole possession of a Wild Card spot (WC3! arguably the best one!) for the first time in what feels like kind of a while; perhaps since those really awful two weeks? You remember those? The weeks? 

KS 

2023 Game Seventy-Eight: Blue Jays 7, Athletics 3

yusssssssssssssssss

Jordan Romano had to come into the game when Yimi Garcia aggravated a knee-injury in a ninth inning that wasn't really going all that well anyway, but this one wasn't particularly close after Vladdy's second home run (a monstrous shot to straightaway centre field on a somewhat-hanging 3-2 curve) in as many days was added atop Dany Jansen's from a little earlier. José Berrios, who we love to see thrive, throve through six for another quality start (he is racking them up!). Yusei Kikuchi will take the ball Sunday, which is something we all feel pretty okay about these day, whereas Oakland is running out Luis Medina, with whom I am unfamiliar, but whose season statistics suggest that a series win remains viable for the Blue Jays. Let us vie, then; let us vie so dang hardly. 

KS

2023 Game Seventy-Seven: Athletics 5, Blue Jays 4

 

everybody's favourite guy Tony Kemp

I may very well have expressed this exact sentiment before, but the fact that Jordan Romano has been about as good as any closer in either league for kind of a while now does little to mitigate the drag of ninth-inning loss (I mean I suppose they are pretty much all ninth-inning losses, aren't they?); in fact, it may actually heighten the drag slightly? I think it's fair to say that the legitimately tragic Oakland Athletics needed it more, coming in on an eight-game losing streak in a truly doomed season, but even so it would have been neat for Vladdy's first home-ballpark home run of the season (on June 23rd! that's amazing!) to have come in a win. Chris Bassitt wasn't at his best—and though I did not see this part of the game, I have seen it said that he didn't seem thrilled at getting pulled?—but still this one remained totally winnable right up until it was lost. All of the teams most relevant to the Blue Jays right now (the Yankees, Angels, and Astros) all lost, so a real missed opportunity here. Ah well!

KS

2023 Game Seventy-Six: Blue Jays 6, Marlins 3

 

me too, guys; me too

Wednesday afternoon baseball! Getaway day! And for the second straight day, a precisely two-hour, twenty-seven-minute affair, despite kind of a lot of runs, most of them coming the Blue Jays's five-run second, which, coupled with Kevin Gausman continuing to be a genuine pleasure on the mound, gave this one an early and extremely welcome air of inevitably. I don't think anyone would say Gausman had his best stuff—he struck out but six in his definitional quality start (three runs over six complete)—but he doesn't even need to, which is a pretty choice sitch.  

KS 

2023 Game Seventy-Five: Blue Jays 2, Marlins 0

normal throwing

Ace of the human heart Yusei Kikuchi (Go Ace!) with a no-walk two hitter! The way I have written that just now suggests a complete game, but no, it was six innings, with clever help from Yimi, Swanson, Mayza, and Romano, aided crucially by a two-run eighth on the strength of big hits from George Springer, Espinal . . . and Ernie Clement? Sure! Why not! A crisp two-hours, twenty-seven minutes, and Miami is not a city with which one generally associates crispness.

KS

2023 Game Seventy-Four: Marlins 11, Blue Jays 0

 

and then they did

Five runs in four innings is not the kind of start we have come to expect from José Berrios; nor does one look to Nate Pearson to be charged with five runs whilst credited with a mere third of an inning. And yet here we are! Even before the five-run seventh, this one was well and truly through. The first shutout loss of the Blue Jays' season! That's actually quite a run.

KS 

2023 Game Seventy-Three: Rangers 11, Blue Jays 7

 

oh come on man

It honestly never even crossed my mind, as the Blue Jays built an early 6-0 lead against the Rangers' fine starter John Gray, that they would squander it almost immediately and lose the game 11-7, and thereby drop the three-game series. Furthest thing from my mind! But Chris Bassitt couldn't keep it together, and as he himself noted afterwards, it is particularly brutal that he could not, in that it meant the Blue Jays essentially had back-to-back bullpen games. That's pretty tough on the guys! This road trip, frankly, stinks; and yet as we head to Miami, we are somehow only a half-game out of a playoff position, as the Astros continue to struggle, and the Yankees, for their part, lost both games of a double-header against the Red Sox yesterday. Could be worse?

KS

2023 Game Seventy-Two: Rangers 4, Blue Jays 2

 

strange days for Yimi

A bullpen day is inherently intriguing to the Baseball Mogulist (and indeed the Out of the Parkist, or really any baseball simulationist given not just to baseball simulation but—and this is crucial—to baseball simulationism), and although it would obviously be better were Alek Manoah still around and putting up Cy Young-finalist numbers every fifth day, I really cannot say that I entirely mind that we are having so many of these (bullpen days, I mean). They're kind of neat! And honestly, this one went fine: four runs allowed is not at all a bad performance out of the pen, though it is unfortunate that three of those four came off of Trevor Richards fairly early. But at a certain point you've just gotta put some runs up on the board! Right fellas! Right . . . fellas? Vladdy's struggles continue to be a drag, but I did take some measure of comfort from his fourteen-pitch at-bat that ended in a well-earned walk. Maybe he'll figure it out? Remember how mystifying first-half Bo was last year, but then he straightened out whatever had been hindering him and ever since he has been the best? Maybe something like that!

KS

2023 Game Seventy-One: Blue Jays 2, Rangers 1

 

he looks fairly standard here but earlier in the evening
Jordan Romano looked p s y c h o

For the second straight game, all of the Blue Jays' runs came on home run swings by Danny Jansen, but this time it totally worked out! Much credit for this rests with Kevin Gausman, who allowed just one run through six without his best stuff (just four strikeouts alongside two walks), then Swanson, Mayza, and Jordan Romano in relief. The Rangers are good again, and this is a thing I know, but it is not yet a thing I fully feel, and it will take time for these things to align, I think.

KS 

2023 Game Seventy: Orioles 4, Blue Jays 2

 

still pretty nice!

Among the things I enjoyed about Thursday afternoon's game were that it looked like a lovely day in lovely Camden Yards; that Danny Jansen got a hold of a couple pitches and parked two home runs to deep left field; and that Yusei Kikuchi turned in a creditable performance. The rest of it, honestly I could take or leave.

KS

2023 Game Sixty-Nine: Blue Jays 3, Orioles 1

yay

A Springer Dinger in the sixth, a two-run eighth thanks to Kiermaier, Merrifield, and Bo, and five perfect innings from José Berrios (who took a no-hitter into the seventh!) are all you need to beat these remarkably good young Baltimore Orioles. It is a drag more people don't come out to see them! I think they announced a little under seventeen thousand. Beautiful night, beautiful ballpark, great young team—what more could you want? But it's not even really summer yet, I get it. It was a school night.

KS

2023 Game Sixty-Eight: Orioles 11, Blue Jays 6

 

not pictured: Chris Bassitt, really sad

Chris Bassitt has been really good this year—on the whole I have no complaints!—and this is only the second time he has been truly shelled, but wow: eight runs (all earned) on eleven hits and a walk in three innings. That's brutal! In the end, the Blue Jays were only slightly outhit (seventeen to fifteen [that's so many hits!]), but timing is so crucial; it is just so important. Another homer for Cavan Biggio, though! Let's get him in there every day until this "heater" subsides!

KS

2023 Game Sixty-Seven: Blue Jays 7, Twins 6

 

of all people!

When the count went to two-and-oh with Cavan Biggio up in a big spot late, I thought, "well, he certainly has his limitations (who among us?), but one thing you can be sure about is that Biggio is not going to go up there swinging at nonsense; the walk is always a possibility." He turned on the next pitch and drove it deep into the right field stands for a game-winning three run homer. Just as I predicted! It would have been a whole lot cooler if this had one the series for the Blue Jays, instead of merely salvaging it, and both Friday's loss (extra innings) and Saturday's (a truly horrific eighth inning) stung like actual bees, but what can you do? On to Baltimore, to play, well, really a much much better team than Minnesota. Oh dear.

KS  

2023 Game Sixty-Six: Twins 9, Blue Jays 4

very much so, Adam Cimber; very much so 

The Twins' seven-run eighth really felt like the turning point in this one, didn't it? Bullpen day went as well you could have hoped right up until then: Trevor Richards was great for three, Tim Mazya proved a worthy lefty once again, and Bowden Francis did perfectly well. But that eighth; what a mess . . .

KS

2023 Game Sixty-Five: Twins 3, Blue Jays 2

 

hey happy Pride everybody

The Blue Jays had runners on second and third with nobody out in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, and couldn't get anybody home despite bringing Bo, Kirk, and Belt to the plate (Vladdy was walked [intentionally]). Frankly, it is tough to win that way! Kikuchi pitched well, and Pearson, Yimi, and Swanson pitched even better in relief. A tense and interesting game, and then just right at the end there, really quite a drag. 

KS 

2023 Game Sixty-Four: Blue Jays 3, Astros 2

 

he picked a runner off an inning later, too; he is just a neat guy

There is no shame in allowing a two-run home run to Alex Bregman, and that was the only real problem José Berrios encountered in six innings befitting La Makina. What a pleasure to have Berrios rolling again this season! He is an easy guy to cheer for, I have found. I followed the Blue Jays three-run fifth—walks to Varsho, Springer, and Vladdy; runs cashed in by Chapman's ground-out, Alejandro Kirk's game-tying ground-rule double, and Belt's go-ahead single (Kirk slid into a tag at the plate to end the inning)—on the radio, and man, Ben Wagner was fired up and I liked it. Three out of four from the Astros! A good team! The Blue Jays have now gone ten-and-three ever since they stopped going two-for-nine, which was a really good call on their part. Next up, the Twins, against whom we played well recently, and who a quick glance at the standings reveals to be a sub-five-hundred division leader (those are rare!). I would like to thing we would take two of three? Kikuchi tonight, bullpen day tomorrow, Gausman up again Sunday . . . yes, I think two of three would be great. Let's try that. 

KS 

2023 Game Sixty-Three: Blue Jays 3, Astros 2

 

yissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Jordon Romano needed a little help to get it done—Mauricio Dubon's double was inches away from leaving the yard, and Kevin Kiermaier's sliding catch a few batters later saved a run for sure—but he got it done! What a tidy little win, on the strength of Chris Bassitt's eight remarkably efficient innings, home runs from Bo and Belt, and Alejandro Kirk's pinch-hit single to plate the winning run in the seventh. And the whole thing only took two hours and three minutes! I respect a win that respects the evening of its audience. Great job everybody!

KS

2023 Game Sixty-Two: Blue Jays 5, Astros 1

 

hey Springer hey Springer hey Springer: sweet dinger

Okay, here we go: a day after the sad debacle of Alek Manoah's final start for at least a good while (if not the season?), we have Kevin Gausman's seven innings of four-hit, one-run (Mauricio Dubon's leadoff homer!), thirteen-strikeout baseball, bolstered by home runs from Springer, Varsho, and Bo Bichette. Gausman, Bassitt, and Berrios have all been fantastic over the last month, but especially Gausman, obviously, who might find himself not only a part of the AL All-Star team in a few weeks, but possibly starting it? It is enormously convenient to have a fallback ace.  

KS

2023 Game Sixty-One: Astros 11, Blue Jays 4

 

see you . . . soon? we hope? 

Before things got as bad as they were going to Monday night, Buck Martinez said that his advice to the struggling and embattled Alek Manoah, were he asked it, would simply be to go out there and be as aggressive as possible: rather than trying any measure of finesse, just fire it in there, because whatever happens, it can't be as bad as it has been, right? And yet it somehow was worse: six runs on seven hits and a walk in just a third of an inning (Alex Bregman hit a fly ball to Kevin Kiermaier for Manoah's lone out). It has been clear for a while now that Manoah just doesn't have it right now, and not just in the sense that he is no longer the top-three Cy Young Award finalist from a year ago, but to such an extent that he has probably been the worst pitcher in either league this season (there are different ways to measure this, but a strong, sad case can be made). The announcement Tuesday morning that Manoah was being reassigned not to Triple-A Buffalo, but to the player development complex in Dunedin, seemed at once a little shocking yet totally the right move, as it can't just be about getting more reps of the same thing, but something close to a complete rebuild. The best-case scenario is of course Roy Halliday—who came up, was amazing, then awful, went back down, changed his arm angle, and came back as Roy Halliday—but there are an awful lot more players who have had it, then lost it, and never got it back than there are Roy Hallidays. Anything we could get out of Manoah at this point, whether that be passable fifth starter, or a multi-inning guy out of the bullpen, would be a creditable salvage operation; front-of-the-rotation starter seems pretty much out of the question. We can hope though, right? But right now it is a sad affair any way you look at it. I feel for the big guy.

KS   

2023 Game Sixty: Blue Jays 6, Mets 4

 

the inimitable physical charisma of Starling Marte, ladies and gentlemen

I have long thought the Mets are neat, and I am always pleased on those rare occasions upon which the Blue Jays actually get to play them, especially in New York, because I like the look of the ballpark quite a bit (this was less true of Shea). I suppose I was not surprised to learn that Sunday's win made for the first time the Blue Jays have ever swept the Mets in New York, given how infrequently they actually play them there, but although I was not surprised, I was certainly delighted! The most delightful occurrence Sunday, I think, was when Chapman's second-base-dangling drew an errant throw from the catcher, which dribbled into short centre field in such a way that Chapman saw an opportunity not just to take third (anyone would), but in fact to boldly strive for home. You'd have to be a lot faster than most people would think for that to work out, wouldn't you Matt Chapman! Good thing that you are that, then, Matt Chapman! Yusei Kikuchi (and later Nate Pearson) tested the limits of my longstanding "we don't worry about solo home runs" policy, as all four Mets runs came on those exact things, but it all worked out fine once Brandon Belt, who turned outstanding the moment he stopped being awful (what a brutal first month!), hit a two-run home run to straightaway centre field at, if not the absolute best times, really one of the better times you are likely to see.

And just like that, with three straight series wins over good teams (Twins, Brewers, Mets), the Blue Jays are good again? Or at least okay? Four games at home against Houston feel pretty big right now, and I think I would be content with a split. It's Alek Manoah on the hill for game one, and maybe this is the one where he really starts turning it around? Couldn't hurt to try, I don't think. I can't see how it would.

KS  

2023 Game Fifty-Nine: Blue Jays 2, Mets 1

 

he went out and got that one

José Berrios was totally La Makina (as has been the case more often than not this season [we love to see it]), Alejandro Kirk dunked Brandon Belt home with the weirdest little single just kind of passed Lindor at short, and Swanson did a great job to close out the ninth with Romano unavailable, but the highlight of highlights in this one was definitely Vladdy's go-ahead double down the third-base line in the top of the ninth, just a pitch or two after John Schneider had been ejected after an awfully funny looking strike ("You've been horseshit for them, and you've been horseshit for us," or words near that, seemed to have made up at least a portion of Schneider's opening volley towards the home plate umpire). Let's keep it going! Just like this! This is all great!

KS 

2023 Game Fifty-Eight: Blue Jays 3, Mets 0

 

a man with other things to attend to

It was a weird one for Chris Bassitt, making his first start against the Mets since no longer being one of them (you may well recall it), in that his wife went into labour back home in Toronto just before the game. I don't know who exactly determined it, but it was determined (one assumed by all parties) that Bassitt would pitch, and fly back not just right after, but like super right after. And he pitched like a guy with somewhere else to be: three hits and no walks against eight strikeouts in seven-and-two-thirds. It was awesome! The only scoring came on Springer's leadoff homerun (or indeed dinger), and Varsho's fairly monstrous two-run shot in the ninth. There was a real focus and intensity to this one, though I hesitate to call it "a playoff feel" because it did not drown me in anxious sorrow, but instead was a lot of fun. 

KS

2023 Game Fifty-Seven: Blue Jays 3, Brewers 1

 

I much happier watching George Springer cheering for diving catches
in CF than I ever was watching him attempt such catches himself
(I did not find it cheering)

First-inning home runs from Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman are all you need if Kevin Gausman is gonna slice 'em up with eleven strikeouts in six-and-two-third scoreless innings (Erik Swanson and Jordan Romano, you guys did a really good job too). I love Thursday afternoon baseball! And this was one of the fun ones where all kinds of school come on field trips—I think Dan Shulman said it was about twenty-thousand kids! I don't remember it ever being quite like that on field-trip Thursdays in my own 2001-2006 era of regular/fanatical SkyDome attendance.

KS   

2023 Game Fifty-Six: Brewers 4, Blue Jays 2

 

it's just not working out

Everything continues to be miserable for Alek Manoah, who is finding new ways to have bad starts: this time, it's not like he got shelled or anything—we've all seen much worse than two runs on three hits and three walks in four innings—but it was all just taking him so many pitches that John Schneider felt he couldn't really run him back out there for the fifth. Manoah was at eighty-nine pitches, which, had he been rolling, wouldn't worry you, of course, and from Manoah's perspective, I bet he felt like he was just battling through it, you know? He's probably thinking like sure it's been two runs through four yeah but I can hold the line and get us through six but given the ways things have been falling apart (most, if not all of the ways), what can you do? It all continues to feel like a shame. The Blue Jays hit, but not in a timely fashion, and their seven hits were only could for two runs. This one felt winnable! And yet was lost.

KS

2023 Game Fifty-Five: Blue Jays 7, Brewers 2

 

Vladdy thinking BP thoughts

I would submit that it is no mere coincidence that, only two days after Daulton Varsho was seen being nice to him when he was sad after the game, and just one day after Bo had a really nice talk with him throughout Chapman's ninth-inning at bat, Vladdy went three-for-five and is totally fixed now. Or maybe it is, what do I know, but it was all very cheering to see! Help each other out: that'll be our motto! Let's hear it, too, for Yusei Kikuchi, who allowed just two runs in his five innings (he is kind of starting to walk a lot of guys again, which should probably be concerning). From there it went Pearson (two innings!), Cimber (welcome back!), Mayza (in true LOOGY mode), and finally Yimi, who, it pains me to say, has struggled this season, but he allowed just the one out pitching the ninth here. Maybe the bullpen guys have been having nice talks with him? I hear that those can help. 

KS