Avoiding the Sweep: Jays Salvage One vs Mariners
Another weekend, another suboptimal series versus an AL West team.
Friday saw the return of Marco Estrada from the D.L. Estrada picked up right where he left off, meaning he was awesome. The only issue was that Seattle's James Paxton befuddled the Jays' hitters who could only muster a solo homer from Michael Saunders.
Estrada told the Toronto Star he felt good, but it was a bit of a battle:
Seattle's bullpen continued where Paxton left off (Edwin Diaz is particularly impressive) but they also benefited from one of the worst calls I've seen in a while.
This is strike two to Saunders in the 9th.
The best part was the secondary lift by the catcher. It would've been less obvious if it had been airlifted, by helicopter, into the strike zone.
What's that, Joshua?
That's a MVP response from the MVP.
Saturday, with the heat wave, the open roof and the terrible pitching, was like a nice afternoon in hell. The Jays were pounded.
Nelson Cruz reminded all why his nickname is "Boom Stick". A grand slam and a three run homer was a good chunk of the 14 runs scored by the Mariners.
One of the victims was Drew Storen. The Jays announced Sunday morning that they had designated Storen for assignment.
Storen was 1-3 with a 6.21 earned-run average through 33 1/3 innings pitched for the Blue Jays this season.
They have ten days to either trade him or release him, but if it's the latter they have to pay his $8,375,000 salary.
And yes, the trading of Ben Revere for Storen last January is still a good one. They had a surplus of outfielders and Storen wasn't supposed to be this bad. Just hush.
This is the second Toronto sports team in 12 months who couldn't keep a player who looks like Phil Kessel. The first one was Phil Kessel.
Gibby, because he just can't help himself, was awesome about it:
"You read his bubblegum card and it's pretty damn good."
Sunday was another low scoring affair, except it was J.A. Happ and the Jays bullpen doing the dominating.
The Mariners, after scoring 14 runs the day before, got one hit by Blue Jays' pitchers. Also weird:
Baseball, you so crazy.
Because it's awesome, this is Darwin Barney's nice play at third and Jason Grilli's reaction to it:
People around baseball are noticing J.A. Happ.
The Happ deal is a Shapiro/Atkins deal that should be counted as a win.
Sometimes the craziest things in baseball happen when one least expects it.
Chris Sale has long been rumoured to be on the trade block, so when Sale didn't make his start on Saturday night, most figured it was something to do with the White Sox trading him.
Then the word came out that it wasn't a trade, that Sale had the "flu".
And then rumours on Twitter said, "Sale doesn't have the flu."
The White Sox released a statement that Sale was involved in a "non-physical" altercation in the clubhouse and he was sent home.
And then this:
If that isn't batshit enough, he used a knife.
Usually, the White Sox let the starter choose the jersey the team wears on their start days, but the White Sox had a throw back jersey promotion. And the White Sox brass wouldn't change it when Sale protested.
He then protested the hell out of the jerseys by cutting them up when the team was holding batting practice.
The White Sox had already distributed the jerseys to the press box before the damage was known. Those collars are indeed weird.
This is considered insubordination and Sale was sent home for five games. He didn't pull a Damaso Garcia, but this is pretty insane.
I'm just sad this wasn't caught on video.