RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Aug 25, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Max Scherzer (31) receives the ball in the second inning against the Kansas City Royals at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Royals 5 Blue Jays 3
Well, that was a frustrating game.
As I said in the thread, we weren’t going to run the table. If they had to win every game left to get into the playoffs, it wasn’t going to happen. They need to win most of their games, but not all of them.
That ninth inning……After two outs, Daz Cameron singled. Brett Bateman followed with a single and went to second on defensive indifference. Nathan Lukes singled them both home.
And then…..Lukes ignored the first base coach’s stop sign and was thrown out trying to turn it into a double. This CAN NOT HAPPEN . His run didn’t matter. If he score from second on a single, we would still be behind. He had to stop at first and hope that Vlad has another good at bat. You can not get thrown out at second when you aren’t the tying run. I don’t know what he was thinking.
The eighth inning was pretty much the tale of the season:
Nathan Lukes took a one-out walk.
Vladimir Guerrero doubled to right.
An out later, Jesús Sanchez was hit by pitch. Bases loaded for
Ernie Clement who, ummmm, fouled a ball off a part of the male anatomy that you really don’t want to foul a ball off. He was down for a while. I was of the opinion they should take him out of the game. I know I wouldn’t be able to hit after that. But, he stayed in and popped one to medium center. In the top of the ninth he dived for a ball and stayed on the ground for a bit, you know he was still hurting. Hitting a baseball is tough, hitting a baseball after being hit in the nuts, is impossible.
We had those two runs in the ninth and one in the first. Bateman and Lukes started the game with singles. An out later, Kazuma Okamoto walked to load the bases. Jesús Sánchez hit a sac fly. Clements followed with a strikeout.
We had tons of chances:
Andrés Giménez hit a double to lead off the second, but we couldn’t get him past third.
In the fourth, Clement and Giménez had one-out singles and Brandon Valenuela hit into a double play.
In the fifth, Bateman had a one-out single and went to second on an error, but ground out (Lukes) and flyout (Vlad) ended that.
In the seventh, Andrés Giménez was hit by pitch to start the inning, but Kirk hit into a double play.
And, well, we talked about the eighth and ninth.
Max Scherzer had a rough first inning, loading the bases on two walks and single, before getting his first out, but even with another walk, he only allowed one run. And he gave up another in the fifth. A one-out walk and two two-out singles scored the run, but he got out of it from there.
Five innings, four hits, two earned, five walks and four strikeouts. Which, other than the walks, was about the best we could hope from Max.
Braydon Fisher also had a rough time of it in the sixth, giving up two hits and as it turned out, two runs. But they weren’t earned.
Mason Fluharty came in and Kyle Isbel put down a sac bunt, the runner from third wasn’t coming out. But Vlad picked up the ball half way down the first base line, turned and threw side arm, well wide of Clement at first. One run scored. Quick play, but you have to make a better throw. Preferably not side arm (sidearm throws tend to slide to the arm side). A sac fly scored the other run.
Paul Swwald gave up a hit and two walks, but no runs in the seventh.
Brandon Little walked one, but had three strikeouts, in the eighth.
Tyler Rogers went single, steal, strikeout, ground out (runner to third) and single, scoring the run. I often say that the trouble with ground ball pitchers is that sometimes the ground balls find holes (of course the trouble with fly ball pitchers is some fly balls clear the fence, safer to strikeout everyone out).
We had 10 hits. Bateman had 3. Lukes and Giménez two. Okamoto, Sánchez (with a hit batter and a sac fly), Valenzuela/Kirk and Straw all had 0 fors.
1 for 11 with RISP just isn’t going to cut it.
Jay of the Day : Gimenez (0.18 WPA).
Other Award: Well, Lukes for going for second and ending the game, gets one. And Valenzuale (-0.15, plus a poor challenge, he also had a good challenge), Clement (-0.12, and he’ll never have children again), Kirk (-0.10), and Straw (-0.10, but did make a great catch in left).
Tomorrow we have a bullpen day. As Jamie says, we’ve done very well in bullpen days. Of course, my objection to bullpen days isn’t the game itself, it is the strain on the bullpen arms. Randy Dobnak (2-1, 1.58 ERA, in 9 games, 7 starts).
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