Blue Moon: Jays Walk off a Wild One vs Royals


That game felt sort of magic, didn't it?

The Jays won a game which Johnny Cueto, who was still pretty fantastic, started,  they came back down three runs twice, first against Cueto and then against a very good Kansas City bullpen and the Jays bullpen pitched really well. After a season of some scariness from the back end, it seems like things might be falling into place. The game got to the bottom of the 11th. Tulo got on, was balked to second by Franklin Morales (both he and Yost think the move is legal) and then Donaldson hit a single to left centre to end it.


"To get any kind of walk-off hit is exciting," said Donaldson. "You want to be able to share that with the fans, with your teammates. You don't get to do it very often, and when you do, you want to remember and you want the fans to be able to remember it too."

Donaldson had four RBIs. And provided this moment of genius.



What's he saying?



“I think what [the trades] gave us,” Donaldson said, “is more confidence in ourselves – that Alex believes in this team, the city believes in this team, we believe in this team. And when you add extra pieces like he did, it’s starting to really come together.....hashtag.”


And  this guy came to hang out in the dugout mid game.


Watching Price applaud throughout the game and then mill around with the boys after the walk off was just surreal. I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it.

I'm sure the whole day, with the blown tire, the driving across the border, the arrival in the clubhouse, the popcorn, the walk off and then the press conference felt crazy for him, too.

“You can feel the excitement whenever you’re in the dugout, you feel it in the locker room,” Price said in his post-game press conference. “This is a group of guys that want to win. This is a management and front office that want to win.”


"The long ball, they can hit homers, man," Price said. "They're a tough group to pitch against. Whenever you're pitching against a team like Toronto, you never have ... an inning where you can kind of relax a little bit. Not relax, but you don't have to go full bore, and with this team you have to be on your P's and Q's at all times.

"That's really tough. It's mentally draining when you face a team like this, because you constantly have to be in the game mentally because if not, we can put up runs so fast."

Be on your P's and Q's. I'm stealing that.

The Jays roll on with Buehrle on the hill.

Tulowitzki is sitting today and people are kind of losing their minds. The hyperventilating over small, minor decisions indicates to me that people are excited. I don't think it was anything to do with any sort of injury. Just remember that Tulo's entire life got uprooted this week. It was a long game last night and a day game today.

Today in irony, David Price had this to say about Danny Valencia:

“Danny Valencia, I’m happy to wear the same jersey as that guy,” Price said, flashing that grin again. “I thought I kind of kept him in the big leagues for a while. Not that he wouldn’t be in the big leagues if it wasn’t for me, but I didn’t hurt his case, for sure.”

Valencia was DFA'd this morning.

I don't know why Danny Valencia was DFA'd, other than maybe it's a money thing. I really hope the Yankees don't claim him, as he owns Price. Actually, I think it's pretty much guaranteed New York picks him up.

He is, by many accounts, a nice dude with a great smile and a biting sense of humour. And a great generator of Internet memes. I miss him already.