Gausman is magic and Springer dingers as the Jays pull out a wild walk-off win
On the Blue Jays' new ace, Springer's dinger, a whale of 10th inning, Jordan Romano, Alejandro Kirk, Raimel Tapia, Jim Thome, Matt Chapman, podcast changes, injury updates, and more!
The Blue Jays continue to be an enormously fun team to watch play the game of baseball. In Tuesday night’s game, despite the bullpen coming unglued in the eighth to ruin the extraordinary work of Kevin Gausman, the team charged back with a three-run ninth to force extra innings. One epic Jordan Romano performance later and they walked the Red Sox off. Unbelievable stuff.
So let’s talk about it! Here’s three up!
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Up: The best there is, the best there Gaus, and the best there ever will be
Kevin Gausman is an ace. I'm not sure how else there is to feel about it after the right-hander went another six innings without issuing a walk, allowing just one unearned run on four hits along the way, while striking out nine.
Sure, he's done this before. He posted a 1.73 ERA in the first half of 2021 before plummeting (relatively) back to earth after the All-Star break with a 4.42 mark. But this is different. Though he didn't throw his slider quite as often as he did at Fenway Park last week, he did use the pitch 16% of the time, which is exactly in line with how often he's used it this year. Last year he used it just 5.6% of the time, relying almost entirely on his fastball and splitter combination.
That combination is still otherworldly, of course.
But the addition of the slider as a real weapon gives him another dimension that genuinely — at least for the time being, and for as long as this lasts — makes him as impossible to hit as anybody.
It doesn’t hurt when all three were up about 1.5 mph in average velocity on the night either.
That all said, let’s not lose sight of how utterly ridiculous the splitter is.
Fourteen whiffs on 21 swings! Twelve called strikes on the four-seamer — no doubt elevated ones that froze guys looking for the split!
He also found time to put himself in some pretty elite company among all-time Blue Jays hurlers.
Robbie who?
Up: Springer Dinger
George Springer plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Better still for 2022: A healthy George Springer plays for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Which isn’t to say that Springer wasn’t prone to feats of clutch magic last year — because he absolutely was — but it’s still only April and thinking of getting to watch a full season of this guy play for the Blue Jays feels pretttttttttttty good right now. And he’s not even the best player on the team!
Anyway, ho hum, with the Jays trailing by two and down to their final out — despite the heroics of Raimel Tapia and Santiago “now up to a 128 wRC+” Espinal, who doubled back-to-back to start the frame — Springer stepped to the plate, worked himself into a 2-1 count, got a middle-middle meatball (albeit at 96 mph) from 35-year-old Jake Diekman, and did this.
The moment looked even better from the stands.
It seems silly to even look at Springer's numbers, because he's just that consistently good. Obviously they're great so far this year: a 154 wRC+ on a .288/.333/.545 line. The walk rate will improve, I'm sure, once pitchers start to finally remember what a terrible idea it is to put one in his wheelhouse.
It is worth noting here, however, that Gausman and Springer are both guys the Jays simply acquired with money! Any team could have had them if they’d paid up! Lmao.
Up: The tenth inning
The report of Jordan Romano’s death were greatly exaggerated. Yes, there were red flags and reasons for concern when for a brief spell his velocity was down and his ability to miss bats diminish. But, hoo boy, that spell was brief! Romano was once again firing the baseball in this one, with his four-seamer (97.2) and slider (87.7) both up about 1 mph on average for the year.
Missing bats, too! Romano induced eight swings on 11 pitches, and four of those swings were swinging strikes.
Not bad! Especially when he was tasked with pitching in the 10th inning, with that pesky Manfred Runner automatically placed on second base to start the frame.
But it was no matter for the Jays' closer, as he got Alex Verdugo to ground out to short, did an excellent job of fielding a sharp Xander Bogaerts liner himself — looking back the runner at third before calmly (though maybe not quite perfectly) throwing to first — before striking out J.D. Martinez on four pitches.
“Pure Canadian CHEESE,” as @BlueJays put it.
With the Red Sox held off the board in the top of the frame, it was then time for the Jays’ hitters to go to work. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was intentionally walked to start the inning, which brought up the struggling Alejandro Kirk in a huge spot — and boy did he deliver.
After going down 0-2, Kirk worked his way back into a full count, sublimely fouling off and laying off a steady diet of knuckle curves from Red Sox right-hander Matt Barnes, before taking a ball in the dirt to force his way on base.
An ugly Matt Chapman at-bat later and left-hander Matt Strahm came into the game to face left-handed hitting Raimel Tapia (currently slashing .200/.200/.200 in a handful of plate appearances against lefties). He had a battle of a different kind, spoiling pitches rather than laying off. The count didn’t make it past 2-2, but Tapia fouled off five before finally reaching out and smacking one to left field, deep enough to allow Bo Bichette to tag and score.
JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN! JAYS WIN!
They are now 12-6 and once again in sole possession of first place in the American League East.
Yes, yes, it’s much too early to be looking at the standings, but you try playing this many games against the Yankees, Astros, and Red Sox and coming away with a record like this! What they’re doing right now is pretty special. Pretty incredibly fun, too!
Wow.
Other notes
• Some injury updates per Charlie Montoyo prior to Tuesday's game:
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is dealing with hamstring soreness and was unavailable to start in tonight's game, though he was available off the bench.
Teoscar Hernández took batting practice on the field on Tuesday, and also participated in some outfield drills, as he works his way back from an oblique injury. A return to the lineup could be imminent, depending on how he feels, though a brief rehab assignment could also be an option.
Danny Jansen is behind Teoscar in terms of timeline, but he too is progressing. He caught a bullpen on Tuesday, which is definitely a good sign.
Throwing the bullpen to Jansen was Hyun Jin Ryu, who is also apparently progressing well — much to the chagrin of certain Jays fans who have suddenly become enamored of Ross Stripling, I'm sure. He may also not require a rehab assignment, and man, would it not be great if Ryu returned and immedately found his old form? A boy can dream, can't he?
• I’m not going to lie, I may have played this game perfectly. I fell asleep on the couch just as Gausman was finishing up his night, and woke up with Springer coming up to bat in the ninth. I’m not 100% sure what happened in between those two moments, but it seems as though it was less good than the parts of the game that I saw!
*COUGH* Looking at you Yimi Garcia and David Phelps!
• MLB and the Players Association announced here on Tuesday that they'd come to an agreement regarding a change on the roster rules that will come into place at the end of the month. "As the parties monitor player health," a co-release explained, "the maximum number of 13-pitchers on Active Rosters set to begin on May 2nd will instead go into effect on May 30th; a 140pitcher maximum will be in place from May 2nd-29th." Ryan Borucki rejoice!
• No lies detected here:
• Or here:
• Jim Jam? A fan of Vlad! (Though, let’s be real, who isn’t?)
• Lastly, in case you missed it, Nick and I announced some podcast changes today. Specifically, we’ll now be doing live — and interactive — shows exclusively on the Callin app! You’ll still be able to listen to the shows after as normal, but hopefully you’ll want to come join us and chat with us live. We’re going to do our best to schedule shows to begin at the conclusion of games as often as we can, beginning after the last out of this Thursday’s 3:07 PM ET game between the Jays and the Red Sox.
Learn everything you need to know about the changes in my post on it from earlier today. Be sure to download the Callin app by heading to their website or scanning the QR code below. And once you’re there and signed up, be sure to search for and subscribe to Blue Jays Happy Hour — or click here to go to our show page.
Next up: Wenesday, 7:07 PM ET: Jays vs. Red Sox (Ross Stripling vs. Michael Wacha), TV: Sportsnet One, Radio: Sportsnet 590
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Did you know that last year Raimel had the lowest fly ball percentage, at 16.4% in the whole league? I was worried ....
Also this 14 pitcher thing. Does this mean that the roster itself will be larger (27 not 26) or will that stay at 26 (but 14 slots can be for pitchers)?
What a game! Such perfect timing here in Australia to lie on the couch laid low with Covid and watch this gem for most of the day. I always listen to the Boston feed when we play them as I love listening to Eckersley - and he loves Gausman and high cheese for sure. Funny how Romano's velocity spiked as soon as Nick Ashbourne's analysis came out. Nice to see those 99's.