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Tuesday Bantering: More on Yesterday’s Games

By Tom Dakers
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Toronto Blue Jays v Baltimore Orioles - Game Two Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

The Jays are 14-5 in their last 19 games. Life would be very good if they can continue this run through the rest of September. There would even be a chance we could catch the team from the Evil Empire.

How confident are you in our Blue Jays? They seem to be running hot and cold. I’m having a hard time feeling any

We should have a poll:

Poll

How confident are you that the Blue Jays will make the playoffs?

This poll is closed

  • 16%
    Extremely Confident
    (83 votes)
  • 43%
    Confident
    (220 votes)
  • 34%
    Sort of Confident
    (175 votes)
  • 4%
    Not Confident
    (24 votes)
  • 0%
    Total Non-Believer
    (5 votes)
507 votes total Vote Now

Last night was the 25th time in Blue Jays history that we had a player hit three home runs (or more, Carlos Delgado hit four once). Bo has a bragging point over his dad. Dante never had a three-home-run game.

The Jays are 21-4 in those games. Can you imagine losing a game when you hit 3 home runs?

Here is the list. The name that stands out to me is Chris Woodward. Woodward is the only other shortstop to have a three-home-run game. He had 33 home runs in his career. His three home run game came in 2002 when he had 13 home runs in 90 games, a career-high. It was the only season he had an OPS+ over 100.

Here is the list:

Query Results Table
Rk Player HR Date
▲ 		Age Team Opp Result PA AB R H 1B 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO Pos.
1 Otto Vélez 3 1980-05-04 (1) 29-157 TOR CLE W 9-8 (10) 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 7 0 1 DH
2 Ernie Whitt 3 1987-09-14 35-093 TOR BAL W 18-3 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 C
3 George Bell 3 1988-04-04 28-166 TOR @ KCR W 5-3 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 DH
4 Joe Carter 3 1993-08-23 33-169 TOR CLE L 8-9 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 RF
5 Darnell Coles 3 1994-07-05 32-033 TOR @ MIN W 14-3 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 1 3B
6 Carlos Delgado 3 1998-08-04 26-040 TOR @ TEX L 9-11 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 2 1B
7 Carlos Delgado 3 1999-08-06 27-042 TOR @ TEX W 5-4 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 DH
8 Darrin Fletcher 3 2000-08-27 33-329 TOR @ TEX W 6-4 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 C
9 Carlos Delgado 3 2001-04-04 28-283 TOR @ TBD W 11-8 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 1 1B
10 Carlos Delgado 3 2001-04-20 28-299 TOR @ KCR W 12-4 5 4 4 3 0 0 0 3 4 1 0 1B
11 Chris Woodward 3 2002-08-07 26-041 TOR SEA L 4-5 (10) 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 0 1 SS
12 Carlos Delgado 4 2003-09-25 31-092 TOR TBD W 10-8 4 4 4 4 0 0 0 4 6 0 0 1B
13 Vernon Wells 3 2006-05-30 27-173 TOR BOS W 8-5 5 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 1 1 CF
14 Frank Thomas 3 2007-09-17 39-113 TOR BOS W 6-1 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 DH
15 Adam Lind 3 2009-09-29 26-074 TOR @ BOS W 8-7 5 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 DH
16 John Buck 3 2010-04-29 29-296 TOR OAK W 6-3 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 0 C
17 Edwin Encarnación 3 2010-05-21 27-134 TOR @ ARI L 6-8 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 3B
18 José Bautista 3 2011-05-15 30-208 TOR @ MIN W 11-3 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 RF
19 Edwin Encarnación 3 2015-08-29 32-234 TOR DET W 15-1 5 5 4 3 0 0 0 3 9 0 0 DH
20 Michael Saunders 3 2016-06-17 29-211 TOR @ BAL W 13-3 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 8 0 0 LF
21 Josh Donaldson 3 2016-08-28 30-264 TOR MIN W 9-6 5 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 4 1 0 3B
22 Kendrys Morales 3 2017-08-31 34-072 TOR @ BAL W 11-8 5 5 4 4 1 0 0 3 7 0 0 DH
23 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 3 2021-04-27 22-042 TOR WSN W 9-5 4 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 7 0 0 1B
24 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 3 2022-04-13 23-028 TOR @ NYY W 6-4 4 4 3 4 0 1 0 3 4 0 0 1B
25 Bo Bichette 3 2022-09-05 (2) 24-184 TOR @ BAL W 8-4 5 5 3 3 0 0 0 3 5 0 1 SS
Provided by Stathead.com: View Stathead Tool Used
Generated 9/6/2022.

It is also nice to see Cavan Biggio heating up. Since the start of August, he has a .245/.328/.547 line. And he has a six-game hitting streak, with a .316/.435/.842 line. It is nice to have one of our second basemen doing decent. I know he is much better vs. right-handers, but, right now, I’d rather see him up against a lefty than Whit Merrifield. Hopefully, Merrifield will figure things out soon.

Yesterday’s balk call against Kevin Gausman was interesting. The balk rule is a rather mysterious thing. But then Kevin gets the balk called against him and then continues the same way for the rest of the game. Kevin was not happy:

Just the fact that there’s no warning given, first chance a guy gets on first, you’re going to call something like that, I kinda knew going into the game to be a little bit more aware of (bouncing my foot) and felt like I actually stopped on that pitch. If you actually look at the replay, I did stop. I just felt like Jeff, for whatever reason, wanted to make that call and went into the game knowing he was going to make that call. That’s unfortunate.

Obviously, I was pretty heated. Bo kinda saved me and did a good job of reminding me like, ‘Hey, we’ve got two games today. It’s not just one game,’ so I really needed to stay in the game.

It did seem kind of personal, especially when there were no other balks called on him. That an umpire can decide, at any time he likes, to call a balk does make me worry about the playoffs.

I think that Bo deserves a JoD for saving Gausman from being kicked out of the game. It would have been hard to win that game and harder to win the second game if we had to empty out the pen.

There was an umpire who said that he only called one balk in his long career and that one was when the pitcher dropped the ball at the top of his windup and, he said, only after it bounced twice.

The Jays were ‘helped out’ by the plate umpire in both games. Of course, that doesn’t include the rather strange balk call. Not that I think the umpires tried to help the Jays (or, in the times that the edge goes the other way, tried to hurt the Jays. Every team’s fanbase thinks the umpires are against them).

Speaking of umpires, yesterday’s ‘balk’ umpire, Jeff Nelson, is behind the plate today. You’ll remember he had one dreadful Jays game behind the plate back in April.

That game featured a 68% ‘Called Strike Accuracy’. Slightly better than you would get if you flipped a coin. How he still has a job is one of those mysteries of life.

There is good news in the world:

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