Monday Jays Catchup

 Hello everyone, been a while! I took both Thursday and Friday off last week because Thurs I had a half day where I was going to the Jays game and Friday was Friday. With that in mind, I have a lot of Jays stuff to catch up on which is perfect for  a quick Monday post! Side note here, the stadium is rocking now. Every game is sold out in Toronto and the energy is immaculate. Ticket prices are going up but the experience is as well, love when the city starts to vibe like this. Ok lets get into it:

Vlad Guerrero Jr. is Clutch (I was Wrong)

Yum, humble pie! I've already come on here and talked about how Vlady is heating up and getting some extremely timely hits. That post I made about the "Flu game" had a whole section apologizing to Vlad. I have to come on here again and say sorry once more right off the top though. Vlad's been on a stretch of doing whatever it takes to will the Jays to wins, and it's been so exciting. On Thursday against the Cubs we got a real pitcher's dual. Going with a group of brokers of course it took us a couple minutes to get out of the bar and into the stadium. For a 3:07 first pitch we were in our seats around 3:30, and it was already the 3rd inning. Scherzer had it going through 5 innings allowing just 1 hit until the 6th when Michael Busch took him deep for a solo shot. The Jays couldn't get anything going off Matthew Boyd though and it was looking like that 1 mistake was about to ruin an absolute gem from mad Max. In the 7th Davis Schneider walked, Ernie Clement sacrifice bunted him over to second and then Vlady game to the plate. He smoked one to left centerfield to make the game 2-1 which wound up being the final score. Sometimes it's not about how many home runs you hit it's more about when you hit them. This was a huge moment in the game in the rubber match of a series against a pitcher that the Jays weren't doing anything against, and Vlady got the best of him and gave the Jays the win. I guess this is why you pay a guy $500m, sorry again Vlad. 

Not Just Vlad, The Whole Team is Clutch

Ok Vlad praise aside, there were some insanely clutch performances in the last few games. In that 2-1 win against the Cubs, Scherzer game back out for the 8th. He gave up a leadoff double and was pulled for Brendan Little. Little then walks the first batter he sees and immediately throws a wild pitch to advance the runners to second and third with nobody out in a 1 run game. I was fairly certain the Jays were about to relinquish the lead, but then Little struck out Happ, then he struck out Tucker, and at this point the stadium was on their feet. The Jays pulled Little and brought in Seranthony Dominguez to try and get out of this jam, Dominguez strikes out the Cubs catcher Carson Kelly and the Jays somehow escape the situation. Jeff Hoffman comes in for the 9th, strikes out the side closing out a clutch performance from the bullpen. 

Game 1 of the Rangers series was a game to watch if you like clutch comebacks. Chris Bassit got hit around pretty early giving up 3 runs in the second inning before locking in and getting out of the 5th. Bottom of the 7th still down 3-0, Alejandro Kirk hits a 2 run homerun to bring the game to 3-2, striking distance! In the 8th Mason Fluharty gets 2 quick outs but then gives up a walk before exiting for Louis Varland. Varland gives up a homerun to Marcus Semien to give the Rangers a couple of insurance runs and push the lead back to 3. Then came the bottom of the 8th and the Jays did what they do best, just have a bunch of guys slap singles and frustrate your pitcher. Gimenez leads off with a single, Schneider singles after him to get a couple runners on, Bichette now singles to score Gimenez, Guerrero walks to load the bases, Barger strikes out but then Varsho walks to walk in a run making it 5-4. Kirk comes up again and slaps a single to left field scoring both Bichette and Guererro and giving the Jays a 6-5 lead. Then with the Jays putting a hit and run play on with Kirk on first, Straw unfortunately struck out, but Kirk had already taken off. The catcher couldn't get a handle on the ball and Kirky was safe at second with his first career stolen base, and maybe the only one we'll ever see. Hoffman in for the 9th, strikes out the side and the Jays escape with a win. It's pretty crazy the amount of big innings this Jays team has had purely hitting singles and walking. That 4 run 8th inning featured 4 singles and 2 walks, who needs the long ball? 

Statistical Feats

This past week has had a lot of statistical anomalies for Jays players. I touched on it briefly above, but Alejandro Kirk stole his first ever base on Friday night against the Rangers. What was amazing is some fans knew what happened right away and the stadium was pretty loud right after it happened. About 10 seconds later though they put up on the jumbotron that this was Kirk's first ever stolen base and the stadium erupted. 45k fans on their feet to give Kirky a standing ovation, it was hilarious and deserved. Vlad made sure Kirk got to take the base home with him, put that thing in a museum. 

Game 2 of the Rangers series could only be described as the Myles Straw game. Straw coming into this one had hit 8 home runs in 664 career games. He went yard twice on Saturday meaning 20% of all his home runs came in that one game against the Rangers. Great performance from a guy who's been quietly really good for the Jays this season. Coming into the year the fanbase, myself included, was very low on this guy. It seemed like another glove first guy with no bat who was going to contribute to the same problems the Jays had last year. While that is still his player type, he's actually had a decent season at the plate, paired with his defense, making him one of if not the best 4th outfielder in the league. The Jays are first in the AL because guys like this are contributing to wins. 

That's all for today! Sorry it was a little incohesive I was battling lethargy in writing this haha. Maybe tomorrow I'll come up with a fun rankings one, the NFL is creeping closer and the Jays are getting exciting, what a time to be a fan!