Blasted: Rays Pound Buehrle, Jays look to Rangers

Written By Joanna


I was completely in favour of letting Mark Buehrle pitch on short rest in an effort to get to 200 innings.

Because, sure. 

People freaked the heck out over it, but I think home field advantage got pumped to the moon over the last week and people were just looking to get outraged. “How dare they get drunk? How dare Gibbons rest his regulars vs the Orioles? How dare he let Buehrle pitch on short rest? How dare Mark Buehrle pitch? How dare they breathe?”


I hated watching what happened- the errors, the grand slam. Buehrle getting two outs and not being able to close it out. But the Saturday game, having the lead and losing it, was way shittier.


I think Gibbons was trying to give something to a guy that has been a pretty solid presence in his rotation the last three years. It wasn't selfish of Buehrle to take the ball. It wasn’t Gibbons trying to feed Buehrle’s ego. No one cares that random guys on the internet think 200 innings over 15 consecutive seasons is an arbitrary achievement.

It mattered to Buehrle, it mattered to his teammates therefore it mattered to Gibby. It’s basic man-management.


I wouldn’t be surprised if Buehrle calls it a career, as reported over the weekend, but I really doubt he’s actually told any MLB sources who then ran around and told various reporters. It's just not his style.

Buehrle, when he was good, was very, very good. He’s been a mentor to the kids and he’s been droll to the press. There isn’t ever going to be another Mark Buehrle- 38th round, 15 year career, a perfect game, a no-hitter and a World Series ring in 2005 (and hopefully another in 2015.) I love that he’s come around to loving Toronto, even though his phone bill was confusing. I love how quickly Buehrle pitches and how he basically lulls batters in complacency.


And I’m going to miss him.


I want to see that bear in the dugout in the post season, laughing at awesome Donaldson plays, Bautista bat flips and Stroman filth.

According to Bob Elliot in the Sun, the four other starters were planning something special if Buehrle had made it to 200:



Damn....


You know why I was ok with not having the best record overall? Because the Jays are in the playoffs, something that didn’t seem possible to many in July.


It’s all gravy after that. Also, matchups are important and home field advantage is definitely nice, but I honestly think the Jays are the best team in the AL, if not baseball. Now, whether they play to their ability or the baseball gods fail to bless them with the right amount of pixie dust is left to be seen.


I think this team and this city are ready to put on a show for all of baseball.

Some This and Some That

C.C. Sabathia announced today he was entering a rehab facility to deal with his alcohol issues and will miss the 2015 playoffs.  Per the New York Times:



Nothing wrong with that. 

Tom Ley of Deadspin wrote about why people should root for the Jays. He's totally right, of course. They are awesome and fun.



As a member of the IBWAA, I got to vote for year end awards. Not that they count in the real vote, but when the results are revealed, I’ll post how I voted so you can all judge me and my wrongness.

This morning, I finally saw Russell Martin's Spotify ad. He appears to be wearing a pork pie hat. It's pretty cute.

He mentions Wale’s Ambition as a song he enjoys.


Martin also mentions how Drake represents everything Toronto is about.

The whole thing made me smile for two reasons.

One, his totally adorable hat.

Two, the opening verse of Wale’s track is by Meek Mill (the track also features Rick Ross.)

Meek Mill is the subject of/inspiration for those dis tracks by Drake, most notably “Back to Back”.

"This ain't what she meant when she told you to open up more."

In other Martin news, I have a nice story from a Facebook buddy:

Guitarist in my band played ball in high school in Montreal with him, with Russ Sr. managing the team. Interestingly, he said Russell was maybe the 4th/5th best guy on the team at that time - not the most naturally talented, but ultimately hard-working, dedicated and well-coached. Had a lot of praise for Russell Sr.

Awesome.

From another Facebook buddy:

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And, apparently Jesse Spector searches for his own name on Twitter. Or something.  He found a tweet I tweeted this morning (that I didn’t @ reply him cause I don’t have time for back and forth or whatever.)

And he responded:



Sure.

Jesse Spector was re-tweeting all sorts of pro-Trout MVP stuff, so I was just letting people know that he hasn’t always been that big a fan of the Jays. I think he’s also blocked Stoeten on Twitter, if that has some sort of meaning to this.


Also, we have start times!



And some people are annoyed/pissed. Including:






Joanna
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