Anything Can Happen
I haven't written in three weeks for reasons various and boring, but the Jays don't seem to have missed me.
I don't want to gloat over the Rangers because my memory is long and I remember April. But to say the Jays handled the Rangers is an understatement. They outscored Texas 24-4 over the weekend. The only close game was Friday, and Encarnacion hit a 2 run double off in the 8th to break a 1-1 tie. Yu Darvish only gave up one run, but Esmil Rogers matched him.
Rogers' start had been skipped in Chicago due to weather, but he was ready to go.
''They give me that confidence,'' Rogers said. ''Yesterday after the game, we sat down at my locker and they talked to me, that I'd pitch tomorrow. I just went back to my room and thought about how I pitched the last time I pitched against the Rangers and let me go on the attack.''
Darvish hasn't won a game since May 16th, illustrating perfectly just how badly the Rangers are scuffling. Asked if this bothered him, Darvish responded:
''I'm not amazed,'' he said through his interpreter. ''This is baseball. Anything can happen.''
To be amazed is akkenitorareru in Japanese. あっけにとられる.
But John Gibbons doesn't want to hear it:
“I keep hearing the Rangers are struggling and all that,” Gibbons told reporters after Sunday’s series-capping 7-2 victory. “Maybe we're pitching good. Maybe we're playing good. I get tired of hearing that. I tip my hat to my guys.”
So what have Gibby's Guys been doing?
“I want to be reserved when I talk about it because everybody's kind of on me right now about how good of a hitter I am,” Lind said. “Because I know it can just stop. If you've watched my career, one day I wake up and it’s gone.”
The starters are better so the bullpen is better- 5 earned runs over 60 innings, according to the National Post.
Colby Rasmus has hit homers in three consecutive games and I hope this girl realized:
Oh, and Encarnacion:
Like, shut up. I also love the "Yeah, that's right" look he gave Nelson Cruz and his eyebrows.
''I'm not amazed,'' he said through his interpreter. ''This is baseball. Anything can happen.''
To be amazed is akkenitorareru in Japanese. あっけにとられる.
But John Gibbons doesn't want to hear it:
“I keep hearing the Rangers are struggling and all that,” Gibbons told reporters after Sunday’s series-capping 7-2 victory. “Maybe we're pitching good. Maybe we're playing good. I get tired of hearing that. I tip my hat to my guys.”
Adam Lind is hitting .439 over his last 13 games. I don't know what that is but I hope it never, ever goes away.
The starting pitching is better. Mark Buehrle, after an April of home run derby pitching, has settled into the crafty lefty I remember from the White Sox. Wang had a better sinker than in his first start in Chicago and held Texas scoreless over 7 innings and won for the first time in over a year.
Colby Rasmus has hit homers in three consecutive games and I hope this girl realized:
Whoa oh.
Oh, and Encarnacion:
Like, shut up. I also love the "Yeah, that's right" look he gave Nelson Cruz and his eyebrows.
This stretch is certainly fun to watch, but what makes me the happiest is that they are doing this in June. The pattern of the last few seasons has been to start hot, and drop right off in June. It's the June Swoon. This season they were ice cold in April, but have been steadily improving in May and have played their faces off in June. It's a long season and the Jays have a long way to go to dig out of the hole they dug in April, but 4 games under .500 is a good sign.