That Was Awful

Blue Jays 7 Dodgers 8

I’m not going to recap that because, well....it was terrible. And it is late. And I watched it at the bar.

But some notes:

• Mitch White can’t be on an MLB roster. If you are up by four and your bullpen is worked to exhaustion, and there is only one pitcher who isn’t overworked, and you can’t go with him, then he can’t be on the roster. Pearson, Francis, Thronton or likely 6 other guys in Buffalo would be better in that spot in the pen. I have to think he won’t be on lone, Ryu needs to be added to the roster soon, but I’d much prefer Ryu pitch out of the pen than to go with a six-man rotation and have another starter who can’t get us six innings.
• The game where Kikuchi was pulled at 78ish pitches and doing terrific but gave up an infield single helped set this up. John is going to need to start trusting him at least a little. Bullpen management has become so much tougher over the past few years.
• Swanson has just thrown too much. You can’t expect to be good every time when you pitch as much as he has.
• The day off yesterday seems to have done a world of good for Bo Bichette. He had 4 hits, including a home run. Sometimes a mental break is a good thing.
• Espinal had a mental lapse at the worst possible time. Taking his side momentarily, someone should have yelled that the runner was coming home. Communication is essential on the field. Someone should have seen that the runner was coming home and let Santiago know (though, of course, I don’t know that someone wasn’t yelling it, and Santiago didn’t comprehend.
• Matt Chapman had a very tough play that I wish he had come up with. Third base is such a tough position because everything has to be perfect. He couldn’t back up on the ball like a second baseman could. He has to come in and make the play. That time he couldn’t.
• We needed Bassitt to pitch deeper in the game. In John’s defense, he tried. He sent him back out for the sixth after he was at 100 pitches, but Chris had nothing left.
• We got terrific work from Génesis Cabrera again. 2 innings, 3 strikeouts and 1 hit.
• Tim Mayza didn’t seem 100%, I can see why they didn’t want to use him yesterday. But he gutted through an inning, giving up just the home run.
• Danny Jansen has been so good late in games. He seems so locked in.
• Vlad seems more willing to walk than it has in a long while.
• Everyone in the starting roster reached base. Everyone other than Belt had a hit.

Anyway, the Jays and us fans have to put this one behind them and get back to winning tomorrow.