HUM & CHUCK

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You Never Know With Baseball: Jays Take Series vs A's.

That was a considerably better series of baseball. Oakland was a team that came in red hot and were playing with a lot of swagger on Friday night. 

They haven't always. This was the A's the Jays had become accustomed to. 

The team that you could imagine woke up in cold sweats because they realized that, yes, they did indeed trade Josh Donaldson. 


Friday, the A's pounded Aaron Sanchez in a way he hadn't been so far this season. One might go on about the fact that the lineup was stacked with lefties (his bane), but the truth is that Sanchez wasn't in command of his fastball. And if he isn't in command of his fastball, the off speed is a write off and it won't matter if it's lefties or righties, he's going to get hit. Hard.

As Sanchez works on achieving the next level, he's going to have to face lefties and he's going to occasionally lay eggs. The fact that the offense actually almost made it a game and made Sonny Gray sweat is a good thing.

The less said about intentionally walking Coco Crisp with your best reliever on the mound the better. I don't often yell about Gibby's choices, but that was a baffling one. 

And they may also have been a little distracted.


Two things written about the Chris Colabello situation sum up my feelings quite well. One by Stacey May Fowles for Blue Jays Nation and the other by John Lott published on his Facebook page. I'll just add a few thoughts. 

I understand confusion, sadness and disappointment. I don't get any sort of vitriol about either his positive test or his statement to the media. Chris Colabello doesn't owe you or me anything. Whether or not he took this unknowingly (as he claims) or he did it intentionally, his status as a fringe MLB player is likely over and he is going to pay for this dearly. His nine year struggle in independent baseball to finally get to the big leagues has now ended. The man is punished.

It is odd that three guys (two MLB guys and a UFC fighter, Frank Mir) have been popped for using the same, non-exotic, easily detected steroid, Turinabol, very recently. It's not fancy, it's not state of the art or taken because it is not easily detected. It was invented behind the Iron Curtain. That's how old it is. Any PED test is going to find it. 

I read a lot about Turinabol over the last couple of days. I even ventured into body building forums. The Canadian Press had a great article on what it's typically used for. 

I guess overall is just makes me sad. I met Colabello at a signing with Roberto Osuna last year. It was the day the Jays traded for David Price and there was a serious buzz in the air. I was near the back of the line when people were getting the news over social media on their phones. People were talking. A teenage girl and her mom were ahead me in line and we discussed losing the considerable dreaminess Daniel Norris, but all agreed that this was an amazing deal and an exciting time to be a Jays fan. One of the security people went up to tell Osuna and Colabello when the deal was official. Colabello's dad was there and I thought it must be great for him to see so many people turning up to see his kid. In our conversation, Colabello got wistful about Taco Bell. 

Man.


Ezequiel Carrera had himself a matchless day on Saturday, going 4 for 5 and making two stellar catches in the outfield in a much more enjoyable 9-3 win over the A's. Through Josue Pelley, Carrera had this to say:

Donaldson and Tulowitzki also had big days at the plate and the game turned into a kind of cleansing one. Yes, this team can pitch. Yes, this team can play defense. And yes, this team can score runs. Many, many runs.

It was especially good to see Tulo have a good day at the plate.

Tulo also insisted his hip was fine, thank you very much.


And they did win the series, Drew Hutchison came up from Buffalo for a spot start but not before Josh Donaldson got his Silver Slugger Award on Josh Donaldson MVP Bobble Head Complete Insanity Sunday and was absolutely adorable with his mom, Lisa French.

I mean, come on with these two.

Hutchison fought it a little over 5 2/3 innings. It became obvious he was struggling a bit repeating his motion to the plate. He kept smacking his hip to remind himself. 

A's starter Eric Surkamp also fought it today.

He paid. All six Jays runs were charged to him. Carrera hit his first homer of the season and Bautista launched a no-doubt two run shot over the left field wall. 

Stephen Vogt, the A's catcher who is having a fantastic start to his season, was impressed what he saw from Hutchison.


This happened in the game on Saturday and it made me laugh.