GAME FIVE, APRIL EIGHTH, 2017:
RAYS 3, JAYS 2 (11 INNINGS)
JAYS LOSE TO WALKOFF WALK!
When your team's lost three of its first four games of the season, it's hard to go all aesthetic anticipating the cold, hard brilliance of a great pitching duel. Baseball is a spectacle, a dance, a military tattoo. For most of the season, for its most perceptive fans, it's a game for which the process,…
GAME FOUR, APRIL SEVENTH, 2017:
RAYS 10, JAYS 8
OH, OH, FRANCISCO!
After that bracing first win last night, things looked so-o-o good tonight, five batters into the top of the first. Tampa's starter was Matt Andriese, a 27-year-old righty in his third year with the Rays. If there's a weak spot in the Rays' rotation, it's Andriese, who is 11-13 and 4.38 in his major league…
GAME THREE, APRIL SIXTH, 2017
JAYS 5, RAYS 2
STRO, MO COMBINE FOR JAYS’ FIRST WIN
There, that feels better. Not great, mind you, but definitely better. All it took was a great effort from a little guy with big attitude and a bigger heart, and a prodigious blast from an intimidating newbie for the Toronto Blue Jays to break the jinx and ice their first win of the year. And…
GAME TWO, APRIL FIFTH, 2017
ORIOLES 3, JAYS 1:
LIKE ESTRADA, HAPP LET DOWN BY BATS
Whoosh. Down went Devon Travis. Whoosh. Down went Josh Donaldson. Whoosh. Down went Jose Bautista. It was a Frank the Plumber moment. Frank did our plumbing for years, though unfortunately he's now retired. A wiry little guy, he was great. Skilled, creative at solving problems, reasonably priced. But Frank came with one caveat: he was…
OPENING DAY: APRIL THIRD, 2017:
BALTIMORE 3, JAYS 2 (11 INNINGS):
CLUTCH FAILURE LETS DOWN JAYS’ ARMS
Talk about your topsy-turvy outcome! In a near mirror-image of last year's American League Wild Card Game, the Baltimore Orioles captured today's opener of the 2017 season with an eleventh-inning walk-off home run by Mark Trumbo, served up by the grizzled Jays' veteran reliever Jason Grilli Dial it back to October 4, 2016. Change the…
ALCS GAME FIVE, CLEVELAND 3, JAYS 0:
THE KID WAS ALL RIGHT,
THE JAYS, NOT SO MUCH
ALCS GAME FIVE, CLEVELAND 3, JAYS 0: THE KID WAS ALL RIGHT, THE JAYS, NOT SO MUCH! Let's be clear on this right from the start: I had my hopes that the Jays' offence would suddenly wake up and stomp all over this young Ryan Merritt's tra-la-la, and that our boys would be off to…
ALCS GAME FOUR, JAYS 5, CLEVELAND 1:
SANCHEZ, DONALDSON
BRING JAYS BACK FROM BRINK
Look at it this way: we won the wild card game, right? Sudden-death, one-and-done and all that rot. But, we won. This afternoon we won another wild card game: win and you play on, lose and you're done. Now we just have to do that three more times. Gulp. On the other hand, if I…
ALCS GAME THREE, CLEVELAND 4, JAYS 2:
BLUE JAYS ON THE BRINK,
FAIL TO STOP THE BLEEDING
Artwork courtesy of storyboard artist Ed Chee. To view more of his work please visit http://www.edwardchee.com With apologies to the late, great Yogi Berra, who would perhaps not mind the emendation: It ain't over till the fat lady sings; And you ain't toast till the dinger dings. Well, Brunhilda's not on stage yet, but we…
ALCS GAME TWO, CLEVELAND 2, JAYS 1:
SKUNKED IN CLEVELAND:
SILENT BATS BETRAY SOLID STARTERS
The most depressing thing about watching yesterday's game two of the ALCS was not that the Jays' hitters fell like tenpins before the unhittable darts of Andrew Miller, but that I constantly needed to write “g6-3” (ground out to shortstop) in my notes. It doesn't matter if they can't hit Andrew Miller, because he can't…
ALCS GAME ONE, CLEVELAND 2, JAYS 0:
HITTERS STRAND ESTRADA,
LET KLUBER OFF HOOK
ALCS GAME ONE, CLEVELAND 2, JAYS 0: HITTERS STRAND ESTRADA, LET KLUBER OFF HOOK Note about team names: In solidarity with Jerry Howarth, Mike Wilner, and the many other Canadian broadcasters who have pledged not to use the Cleveland team name or the term “the Tribe”, I will refer to the team from Cleveland only…