"Are they booing the Blue Jays, Smithers?'"
"Uh, no! They're saying Boo-urns. Boo-urns!"
As this is my first ever article on Da Box, I just want to say
how awesome it is to have the opportunity to write for one of the best
baseball websites in all of Internetland. Unfortunately, the squadron of
choice around these parts is a very stinky baseball team right now.
I was hoping this would be a joyful time to introduce my new weekly
feature article on Da Box: Game of the Week, where I look at a game of
the past week (preferably featuring the Blue Jays) and recap it,
complete with directionless insights and random Simpsons references. I
think that's a perfectly cromulent thing to ask, don't you?
Unfortunately, the awfulness of the local twenty-five has made this task
difficult, for it is incredibly difficult to watch this team without
throwing large and heavy objects at your television. Nevertheless I
shall persevere, and seek out one Blue Jays game a week of particular
interest to write about. Should the unwatchableness of this team
continue, well I guess I'll just get creative or something. I dunno.
It's my first day!
Anyway.
The first ever Game Of
The Week is May 3rd: Mariners versus Blue Jays at the Dome. This is a
notable game as not only did it feature (King) Felix Hernandez (who is
kinda really, really good) but it also the sudden and unexpected return
of Ricky Romero, after just one (successful) start at Dunedin.
The first three innings was a pure pitchers duel: King Felix's fastball
was too much for Toronto hitters, while Romero had the command of his
pitches that made him one of baseball's best in 2011. A very subtle
change in Romero's delivery had the TV broadcasters raving about Romero:
in particular his ditching of putting both hands together and over his
head during his wind up. For a pitcher who had struggled with command
and release point as much as Ricky this makes a lot of sense: eliminate
some moving parts and focus just on that instant the baseball leaves
your hand. For the first three innings this adjustment worked
brilliantly.
A leadoff walk to Michael Saunders opened the
fourth inning (on a full count pitch) and then Seattle third baseman
Kyle Seager smashed a fastball inside and high (halfway between the belt
and the letters) into the right field seats to give the Mariners a 2-0
lead. Then Ricky lost the strikezone. He hit Kendrys Morales on
the first pitch (it happened so quickly the television broadcast didn't
even catch it live) walked two of the next three hitters and suddenly
the bases were loaded. The trainers came out and it appeared that Romero
had a blister on one of his pitching fingers. As someone who
has pitched in competitive (of course amateur) baseball, I can speak
firsthand on the experience of pitching with a blister: impossible. It
messes up everything: your grip on the ball especially, but also your
release point, your focus, your entire approach. Every time you throw
the ball you know there's going to be a sharp stinging pain. That'll
seriously mess you up.
It boggles my mind why Gibbons, seeing
this, left Romero in the game. Sure enough, the next batter, Dustin
Ackley, hit a ball hard into right field (another pitch up and in,
Seattle's lefties seem to like it there) to score the Mariners third
run. Ricky managed to make a nice play to get a force out at the plate
off Montero and then pop up Brendan Ryan (he really looks like he's
swinging a baton instead of a bat) to escape further damage, but those
three runs would be all that Seattle needed with Felix Hernandez
pitching.
Two other plays in this game stood out to me. One was
Brendan Ryan's superb in-the-hole throw to steal a hit from Kawasaki.
The other was immediately after Seattle scored their three runs in the
4th. Melky Cabrera led off the inning and hit a high pop fly into the
Bermuda Triangle between third base, shortstop and left field. Once the
ball hit the turf after several seconds airbourne I was certain the next
thing I'd see would be Cabrera charging into second base, but instead
he was just arriving at first, and it sure looked like he'd taken his
sweet time getting there. In a moment that really sums up this season so
far, the next batter, Bautista, hit a sharp ground ball right at the
capable glove of Kyle Seager who turned it into an easy 5-4-3 double
play. An opportunity to strike back quickly was completely squandered,
and the Blue Jays never posed a serious threat again. FINAL: 4-0 Seattle.
I'm not going to lie: I don't enjoy watching this team right now and
it's because they're terrible. Not even lovably terrible, or
sympathetically terrible, no. Yeah, they're actually terrible at being
terrible. I'm not completely sure they could beat the Intercounty Maple
Leafs in a five game series, though I find the thought of that series
amusing. You can totally picture Arencibia, Rasmus and Lawrie swinging
and missing out of their shoes trying to hit the ball to Bloor street.
It's hard to pinpoint what the problem with the Blue Jays is because
everything is a problem. (Except Casey Janssen. He's awesome) The
coaching has clearly not been good at all but you can't blame everything
on just that.
Writing about an awful baseball team isn't
particularly fun so here's hoping the Blue Jays can turn it around and
quickly. I think they can, what worries me is how much they think that.
Division of The Atrocious -- Standings (as of May 5th)
Los Angeles Angels 11-19 --
Chicago Cubs 11-19 --
Toronto Blue Jays 10-21 1.5
Miami Marlins 9-22 3
Houston Astros 8-23 4
Stat Line To Chew On of the week:
.525
.500
.451
.322 (31 games)
I
just want to thank everybody again at Battersbox for welcoming me
aboard. I'm looking forward to doing more of these in the future!
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2013050718422190