19 Innings : Fun is Winning and Winning is Fun


That series had everything about baseball packed into three games. Great defense (hi Colby), horrible defense. Great bullpen pitching and three blown saves. Great starting pitching, bad starting pitching. Replays and calls overturned late in the game. Homers and small ball. Dickey looking like he had been kicked in the stomach (Friday, post blown save) to Dickey kissing Bautista (Sunday, post 19th inning walkoff,single.)


Three 1-run games. You can't tell me the Jays in the playoffs would be boring, MLB, because it just won't be. You can't tell me this isn't a baseball town, because Toronto packed the house.

“It was a club celebration,” Colby Rasmus said. “Everybody was excited, pumped for the win, and I think we were trying to make the environment [about] everybody being happy that we won, not just coming into the locker room and just sitting there.

“Everybody came in having a good time. And I think that’s going to push us to want to win and want to do things right, and just have fun. At the end of the day, fun is winning and winning is fun.”

So

Much

Fun
 This was actually my favourite moment of the game. Mostly because Gibby is such a bad ass in it.

Melky Cabrera is awesome. And had a historic day at the plate.

Got mad hits like he was Rod Carew. (And intentionally walked like Barry Bonds.) 

The only Jay who didn't have a very good day was this guy.


I don't know exactly what's going on (and no, it's not because he sucks) but here is my suspicion. Buehrle gets 200 innings every year, and he has never been on the DL. That's a lot of innings on that arm. He's not a kid anymore and he's probably hit a wall. I'm hoping he can get some down time with the off days, and maybe skip a start. It's rough to watch. 


I believe the thing I was thanking Washington for was his pointing out how hard/terrible the turf is — it was one of those situations like where you can complain about the terrible things your family does or how misbehaved your dog is, but as soon as someone else makes a comment about it, it’s not ok. 

Also, I have no idea how Washington has managed a bullpen lately, but I remember a certain World Series game where Josh Hamilton and Adrian Beltre hit what felt like 50 homers and the bullpen couldn't hold on to any lead. I believe they came within a strike- TWICE!- of winning the whole thing. If you have used your ‘pen to the point that your pitchers can no longer throw a single strike, you have overused those horses. You could almost see the smoke coming out of Nolan Ryan’s ears. 

The Jays fan is a moron. (Way to represent.) Gibbons’ bullpen management tends to be pretty good—I fail to see how it was mismanaged yesterday. Did they not throw more than a complete game of shutout baseball? Like, 15 innings or something insane like that? Chad Jenkins is a long man- he went long. And they didn't have to throw a starter out there. 

Also, the words “Joey Bats” and “swinging like a moron” should never be strung together in a sentence, unless the words “not” or “never” are mixed in. I mean, have some respect.

Respect like this.


h/t to Ian the Blue Jay Hunter. He's the best, guys.