This Team is Bonkers: 11 Straight for the Second Time


Blistering. Blazing. Scorching. Sizzling. I think I have heard countless synonyms for hot in the various descriptions  of the Toronto Blue Jays of late.

And the Jays have gotten blisteringly hot. They have now caught and surpassed the Yankees for first in the AL East, making up  As I type this, the Jays, with their win today, are 1.5 games up but the Yankees have two on in the top eighth, leading Cleveland 8-5. So the Yankees may be half a game back when they roll into the Rogers Centre for the next three games of the Battle Royale.

The Blue Jays became the first team since the 1954 Indians to record a pair of winning streaks that lasted at least 11 games in the same year. They have swept the Twins, the Yankees and now the Athletics on their way to 11 straight wins.

People were doing weird things like saying, "If you eliminated those two win streaks, the Jays would be below .500."

Case in point:


So you're saying if you took away a bunch of their wins, they'd have fewer wins? 

The Oakland Athletics had some serious problems with the second inning in the last two games of the series. Jesse Chavez pitched very well every other inning but the second. He gave up a three run homer to Ryan Goins. You know destiny is on the side of the Blue Jays when Troy Tulowitzki gets the day off and his light hitting back up gets the three run homer. 


"The big part of the lineup is gonna be one through five, six, seven," said Goins. "Us guys at the bottom are just trying to have a good at-bat and turn it over to those guys; they're gonna be the guys who carry us."

I just re-read that quote, "The big part of the lineup is gonna be one through five, six, seven...." One through seven? This team is bonkers.

Mark Buehrle once again proved he is some sort of magician. The A's loaded the bases in the first with no outs and wiggled out of it. The A's put two on the corners with no outs in the second, and Buehrle got out of it again.

"For me, bases loaded and nobody out, that's usually guaranteed for at least a run or two because I don't strike guys out," Buehrle said. "I threw the curveball to Valencia and luckily he grounded it back to me. When guys are on base, I just have to try to pitch out of jams."

Jam management. Buehrle had balls bouncing off limbs and he still managed to get outs. He took a ball off the forearm in the first.

"The rest of my body parts are healing up from getting worn out, so I figured I needed to hang out with the trainers a little bit more to get some treatment so I had to wear off another body part." 

If Buehrle does decide to call it a career after this season, would it be possible to just to get him on the phone to give quotes about stuff? 

I really loved seeing the fans get up in the eigth when Gibby went to get Buehrle, and Buehrle acknowledging the crowd by clapping his glove. 

John Lott took a great picture of the moment.



“Gibby stepped out of the dugout and I wasn’t even looking, then I heard the fans and they were going crazy before he got to me . . . that was amazing,” Buehrle said.

I think he might finally love us.

It was announced today that Drew Hutchison will make the start Sunday versus the Yankees. The team must have decided that his comeback performance versus the A's (which featured excellent fastball command, which allowed him to use his slider effectively- two things that have eluded Hutch most of the year) was enough for him to give it a go. 

The plan might've been to have Dickey, who often dominates the Yankees, go once again on short rest for Sunday. Maybe he, like Buehrle, is a little fatigued. 

Keeping in mind that the Yankees are struggling a bit now (swept by Toronto last weekend, may salvage this final game having lost the previous two to Cleveland) and also keeping in mind my serious bias, the Jays look like the better team going down the stretch.

Of course, a team on an 11 game win streak is going to look fantastic, but I think this team has a shot at winning the division and it's in their hands to get it done.