The Way We Are: Jays Take 2-0 Series Lead Back to Toronto
From what I understand, the key to success in the playoffs is getting there and getting hot.
And right now, the Jays are hot.
After what seemed like endless weeks of futility, this is welcome. September featured he Jays losing the division to the Red Sox, where they seemed incapable of scoring runs and holding leads despite starting pitching performances that ranged from more than serviceable to balls out amazing. September was horrible.
It's October now.
Happ, our 20 game winner, wasn't great yesterday.
But Happ was enough because the Blue Jays are hot. So hot they do things like this:
Kevin Pillar has absolutely no business swinging at that pitch, but it was so Pillar to do that.
Did you just reference A League of Their Own, Dimples?
I love this scene despite the fact that Dottie is in the wrong. As if Dottie would ask Marla to bunt. Swing away.
I've always loved how the Racine catcher goes, "Oh goody."
Troy Tulowitzki continues to play like a man possessed. He hit another homer yesterday, a two run shot to open the scoring.
Michael Saunders with love for Tulo :
Watching Tulowitzki play the field, I'm constantly impressed with how graceful he is, especially for such a big guy. It's beautiful and reminds me of one of my favourite bits of baseball writing in 2016, where Brendan Kennedy got Heather Ogden, principal dancer at the National Ballet to analyse Tulo's movements:
Grace plus power.
Edwin Encarnación, who had a homer of his own, summed up the feelings perfectly.
Because it's Toronto, the game was no without tense moments. The bullpen turned what felt like an easy, breezy win to a fretful affair.
It didn't help that Francisco Liriano took a line drive off the head area.
It was scary and the call of it was very strange.
There was almost glee in the voice of the TBS play by play guy, like he had been promised that someone was going to get beaned in this series and it was finally happening. Ball or fist, he didn't care.
Liriano left the field under his own power, and though he was taken to a local hospital to get checked out he was cleared a few hours later to fly home to Toronto with his team. Liriano's status remains up in the air.
Gibby had this to say:
This understandably put a bit of a damper on the celebration of being up 2-0 going back to Toronto.
Osuna came out to close it out and it remained a tense affair, almost as if they wanted to remind us how it feels to be alive.
Tienes sangre de horchata.
Checking in on an old friend:
It's really quite baffling.
I'll always love you David, but you're not on my team.
Music? Okay.
Solange Knowles dropped an album this week and it's really, really good.
Completely different vibe?
Another completely different vibe? This is running across a field music.