Peeking: Jays/Yankees Rivarly Heats Up
Last night's game was stupid.
I could really just end it there, but I should probably elaborate.
This team can look excellent against a team like the Braves and barely 24-hours later, it looks hopeless. I mean, some teams just own other teams (the Jays are 9-0 against the Braves over the last couple seasons. Sometimes it just lines up that way.) But…still.
I don't know what's going on with Alek Manoah, but that needs to be rectified. Immédiatement.
It might be as something as small as the fact that he's got he's just such a big dude-a small change, be it a small injury, or some other small little variation in his delivery means that his ability to throw strikes when he wants or needs them has alluded him so far this season. Small variations on the mound become big ones as the ball travels through space/time and reaches the plate. That's true of all pitchers, but the fact that Manoah is such a massive dude I got to imagine that it's even more pronounced.
Seven walks in four innings is just all kinds of bad. Cito Gaston once said, “I can't manage around walks.”
I don't know if there is some sort of strategy about building up a Blue Jays/Yankees rivalry, but it's certainly starting to look like it. MLB.com had a rather hilarious “biggest rivalries in baseball right now” article a few weeks ago and they had the Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays as the biggest rivalry in baseball. At the time the Yankees were in 5th place and the Rays were in first place and there were the Baltimore Orioles, the Boston Red Sox, and the Toronto Blue Jays in between them.
So I assumed their clickbaity articles get more hits when they mention the Yankees because you could have just said the Rays versus the rest of the AL East or the AL East in general because all of these teams are currently above .500. The Boston Red Sox are currently in 5th place and they would be in second place in many divisions in baseball. The Rays are clearly the class of the field so far but everyone else is right there in it and it's going to be a dog fight the entire season. So yes, the Yankees are “magical” and “make us want to be better people” or whatever, but I don't think that's the story. But, many would argue, the Yankees are always the story.
And then this:
I laughed off the entire Aaron Judge lookie-loo controversy during the game.
But then I saw Aaron Judge's postgame comments. His pants are totally on fire. And it’s a big fire because those pants are very long.
Is he gonna beat up Buck Martinez?
This rivalry is fun and all, but it’d be more fun if the Jays kept Judge in the park and started winning some ball games.