So far, so good. The Jays flashed a powerful offense in game one, and dominant pitching in game two. They can sweep the series with a win today and are just two games behind the Rays for the Wild Card sport, 4 games out of first. in the AL East.
Henderson Alvarez pitches for Toronto, Alvarez hasn't been striking anyone out, and he has had trouble with the long ball, but he has gotten a ton of ground balls and limited the walks. However, it has taken a fair bit of luck on batted balls and stranded runners. The home runs might be an anomaly considering his excellent ground ball rate, but he'll need to strike out a few more batters if he is to enjoy continued success. The young righty's swinging strike rate is about half the league average. The key to that is Alvarez's change up, his main weapon against lefties and a good pitch for generating swinging strikes, but he hasn't been successful with it so far this season at all.
Dillon Gee, meanwhile, pitches for the Metropolitans of Flushing. Gee has nice looking peripherals (37/9 K/BB in 43 innings, and a ground ball rate as good as Alvarez's, but his production hasn't reflected either, as he sits with a 2-3 record and 5.65 ERA. Whether that's due to horrible luck (as a .346 BABIP, 63% LOB both suggest), horrible defense (Ruben Tejada at short, Daniel Murphy at second, and David Wright at third isn't exactly a defensive dream team) or both is up for debate.
I'm going for a nice long trail run this morning but should be back for the game, though I may be going into the office today.
Today's title comes from the great song "Brooklyn" by Jesse Malin, who continues to carry on the tradition of great New York rock and roll songwriters who can't sing.
| Mets; 1. Andres Torres (S) DH | Toronto: |
1. Don't talk about illegal streams
2. Don't post gifs until the game is done
3. Don't be a huge tool