Game #70 GameThread and Bantering

Well, last night’s game wasn’t as nice as we’d have hoped. It’s a new day, though. A few bits of news:

• First off, it’s rainy in Philly as it is pretty much everywhere in the eastern US today. As I write this (about 90 min before scheduled first pitch) they expect it to have cleared in time.
• Max Scherzer threw 4.1 innings for the Bisons last night. According to John Schneider this morning, he came out of it feeling a little fatigued but generally alright. That’s encouraging. He’ll likely get one more appearance in AAA to keep building himself up, but hopefully we’ll see him in Toronto soon. He’s desperately needed. With Bowden Francis in a deep hole and Eric Lauer not fully stretched out, they’ve effectively been dealing with two bullpen days every turn of the rotation. Some off days have allowed them to paper over the issue thus far, but it’s not sustainable. Scherzer coming in and even giving them 4-5 decent innings would go a long ways.
• We don’t have a return date for Anthony Santander, and, reading the tea leaves, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be soon. Given how awful he looked to start the season and the number of competent players they can shuffle through the corner outfield right now, I don’t see any reason not to give him all the time he needs to get to 100% before he returns.
• The first couple of (minor) trades of the season happened yesterday. First, the White Sox acquired Aaron Civale for Andrew Vaughn. Then the Rays picked up Forrest Whitley for cash. Neither is likely to be significant, really, although they would have looked like blockbusters three years ago. Civale got off to a rough start to the season, went on the IL, and has been solid in four starts since returning but requested the trade after the Brewers called up top prospect Jacob Misirowski to take his rotation spot. Vaughn had been demoted to AAA earlier in the season after losing a playing time battle to Tim Elko. Tim Elko is hitting .155. Still, Vaughn was the third overall pick in 2019 and the Brewers must figure he’s worth a flier. Whitley, meanwhile, was alternatively ineffective or hurt for most of the past few seasons, and a demotion to the bullpen didn’t solve either issue. He was the consensus best pitching prospect in baseball at one point, though, and the Rays will hope they can apply some devil magic and get him on track. This is relevant mostly because it shows that teams are making some tentative forays into pitching market already. The Jays are going to need to do so themselves at some point, so they should be watching these deals.
• Finally,

On to this afternoon’s game. Bowden Francis (2-8, 6.12) has been a disaster, especially lately. They’ll need some kind of a bounce back from him against Cristopher Sanches (5-2, 3.10), who’s having an excellent season. Here are the lineups:

Blue Jays

1. Bo Bichette, SS
2. Vladimir Guerrero jr., 1B
3. Alejandro Kirk, DH
4. George Springer, RF
5. Ernie Clement, 3B
6. Davis Schneider, 2B
7. Myles Straw, CF
8. Jonatan Clase, LF
9. Tyler Heineman, C

Phillies

1. Trea Turner, SS
2. Kyle Schwarber, DH
3. Alec Bohm, 3B
4. Nick Castellanos, RF
5. Max Kepler, LF
6. J.T. Realmuto, C
7. Bryson Stott, 2B
8. Otto “the Kaiser” Kemp, 1B
9. Brandon Marsh, CF

Go Jays Go!