Keep Grinding: Jays Take Series vs Yankees
The Toronto Blue Jays just completed a fantastic little road trip. Taking three of four from a rather sad Minnesota Twins team is one thing, but taking two of three in the Bronx from a Yankees team riding a win streak is even better.
James Anthony outdueled Carsten Charles in the battle of initial lefties on Thursday.
"I battled in the game. Their guy was a little bit better than me today," Sabathia said. "Happ had a big game. You've got to tip your hat."
Hat tipped. Edwin Encarnacion had a two run single and Devon Travis got a somewhat supernatural hit off Aroldis Chapman for a little insurance run late.
That's right. Devon Travis is back. Is he the offensive saviour of the Jays season? The missing ingredient? In addition to insurance runs off hard throwing closers, Russell Martin hit two homers on Wednesday and Ryan Goins hit with runners in scoring position with Travis in the lineup. That's two things sorely missing from the still young 2016 season.
Correlation implies causation. YES IT DOES.
What's that, Devon?
“It’s a grind every day. I feel good, it’s just normal baseball, whether you’re feeling good or not, those pitchers on that mound are really good. Every single pitch is a big pitch, I’m trying to take it pitch-by-pitch, at-bat by at-bat, and hopefully here soon it clicks.”
This was good to see on Wednesday.
Roberto Osuna recorded his 100th strikeout. To quote my father, "That didn't take very long." Likely as a nod to coming full circle, Osuna's 100th strikeout victim was the same as his first: Alex Rodriguez.
With the Yankees vanquished, these boys now come home to face the Stupid Boston Red Sox. (That's their official name.) I don't quite know what happened in the pre-game meetings for the radio and tv broadcasts for the Yankees/Jays rubber match, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that there were several notes about hyping the weekend series. It felt non-stop. Did you know the Red Sox have the second best record in baseball? Did you know they've scored the most runs? Did you know that David Price signed with Boston? Did you know Jackie Bradley Jr. is riding a 29 game hit streak and is totally going to match DiMaggio? Did you know Boston invented baseball? Did you know the sun rises and sets on David Ortiz's ass?
I mean, I know they are good. They are really good. Really, really good. (Assholes.) But I question the idea that anyone watching or listening to a game between the Yankees and the Blue Jays is going to get hyped about the Red Sox. Jays fans won't. Yankee fans sure as hell won't. I supposed one could argue it's in the interest of talking about the stories from around baseball, but the Cubs have been better and I wasn't getting a lot of Cub talk. Where is the Cubs talk?
The Jays often get the short end of the stick when it comes to coverage, so the fact that their own broadcasts contribute to this is ridiculous.
Ross Atkins talked a bit about the fall out from the Rangers/Jays brawl and the reputation the Jays have around the league.
“I think we’re misunderstood sometimes as an organization and as a team and part of it is talent. Part of it is the ferocity of that lineup and how intense those matchups become, how intense each at-bat is with us that have turned some emotions high. There are some individuals here that are misunderstood and there’s a team here that is sometimes misunderstood. At the same time, we’re here to control what we can control, and how we are viewed and perceived is not something we spend a lot of time thinking about.”
ESPN had a piece about the Jays' rep.
The best part is Jose Bautista trash talking Justin Smoak while stretching on a foam roller.
“I’ll slap the South Carolina right out of you.”
Just be good, Blue Jays. Unrepentant. Unashamed. Unmerciful.
And everyone else will just have to get over it.
“So just get a little zen about it, eh assholes? It shouldn’t be that difficult, even. Just look at the lineup. There is truly no reason to believe it could be this bad for this much longer. And when it comes back again — assuming it does — have yourself a laugh as you listen for the muffled sounds of ragged claws racing back out under the rocks, stuffing themselves back into their Jays paraphernalia like all this never happened.”
Preach, oh Bearded one. PREACH