It is funny how things work. Going into the series with the Red Sox, I would have been thrilled with the Jays winning three of four. There is something about losing the last game of the series. If we lost the first game and won the last three, I’d be thrilled. If we just lost the second game, I’d be thrilled. But I convince myself that we should sweep when we win the first three. But it was a good series for us.
We now have a 12.5% chance of making the playoffs. The next nine games will be pretty telling—six against the Yankees, home and away and three on the road against Tampa. Winning five of nine would be a good result. I don’t know if that would be enough to improve our chances of making the playoffs.
Tonight’s game is on Apple TV. We are out with friends tonight, so I spent time this morning making sure I can get the game on my phone. There is a Sun story calling this the ‘most-anticipated game of the season’, which feels a bit like overkill. For me, the most anticipated game is always opening day, after a long winter of staring out the window waiting for baseball to return.
Why is it the most anticipated game?
The latest Apple TV intervention couldn’t come along at a worse time for all kinds of reasons, including the marquee pitching matchup between former Cy Young Award winners Gerrit Cole of the Yankees and Shane Bieber of the Blue Jays.
I don’t know if that is the marquee matchup that it once was. Shane seems to bounce from good start to bad start. A 5.48 ERA doesn’t fill me with a sense of confidence. But he has had some good starts. Cole has been on a nice little run of late, but hasn’t been the ‘Cy Young’ type, coming back from injury.
After today’s start, we have Cam Schlittler against TBD on Saturday. I’d guess it will be SWR. Sunday it is Ryan Weathers against Dylan Cease. No pressure, Cease; we really need that game.
In their first 11 games this month, the Yankees are 6-5.
The plate umpire had a rough day yesterday (as did Brandon Valenzuela, wasting a challenge in the first inning on a pitch that wasn’t all that close). The early miss seemed to cause Brandon to miss out on challenging pretty obvious mistakes later.
I don’t know what a manager can do. Tell the catcher, ‘No challenges in the first inning; I don’t care if the ball was dead center in the strike zone; don’t challenge.‘ You do have to trust your players some, but that first inning….. It would be nice if players could stay away from challenging in low-leverage spots, but I suppose, when you see that a pitch you want to challenge, it would be hard to also think about whether it is a high-leverage spot.
Anyway, the Umpire Scorecard:
