Happy Memorial Day to those on the other side of the border. I’m not sure ‘happy’ is the right word. It is good to have a day to think about the people who went to war, something I know I could never have done. I’m a wimp. There is no way I could have gone through a war. I whine because I have a sore knee from tennis.
Anyway, we have an afternoon game today—well, a late afternoon game for those of you in the eastern time zone. 4:00 Eastern.
Coming off a sweep by the Rays, we are facing three terrific Rangers pitchers. But then, every pitcher we face looks amazing. Today, we face Jacob deGrom. It is unlucky that we play the Rangers during the one month of the season that he’s healthy. In the last five seasons, he made 47 starts.
Tomorrow, the Rangers have Nathan Eovaldi (4-3, with a 1.60 ERA) starting. Tyler Mahle starts Wednesday (5-2, 1.80)
But we have much the same record as the Rangers: Us 25-27, them 26-28. Getting swept wouldn’t be a good thing.
The Jays are doing better than last year. We were 23-29 at this point last year (and, not surprisingly, had just lost three games in a row). Until that three-game stretch, we thought we could get back in the race with a little win streak (we did win four in a row from game 53 to game 56).
This does seem like an important series. If we get swept, we’ll be five games under .500, which would be an enormous chasm to climb out of.
We have a four-game series with the A’s next. I remember looking forward to the stretches against the bad teams last year, and then watching them get beaten by the bad teams. But maybe this year we can win the teams we are supposed to beat.
Yesterday’s Umpire Scorecard. We were losing the whole game, and it is normal for the trailing team to get the umpire leaning in their direction. Anyway, Alfonso Marquez was terrible.
Mitch Bannon, at the Atlantic, tells us the Jays are ‘still looking for their true identity’.
I’ll admit I’ve never been a big fan of these things. I think they found their identity. They are mediocre, but they are a team that aspires to .500. I’d imagine every team within five games of .500 would say they don’t have an identity.
“In terms of the highs and lows, we got to figure that out,” manager John Schneider said. “We got to get better at being more consistent. And I think when we do that, that’s when you kind of see the true identity of who we are.”
Maybe inconsistency is the identity. Maybe they are the guys who can look good for three games and then look terrible for five.
At SI.com, Tom Brew discusses John Schneider’s complaint about conditions at Steinbrenner Field (wait until they play in Sacramento). Complaining about playing in a minor league stadium seems weird when the Jays played in Buffalo in 2020 and 2021.
I mean, I wasn’t a fan of them playing at Tropicana. But, yeah playing out in the Florida heat wouldn’t be all that much fun. But then….this is baseball. Most of these guys grew up playing in the heat of the southern states or the Dominican.
The Astros had the same issues playing in the heat.
It is only May, it will be that much worse playing their in August.
What we’ve learned this week — and especially in wins on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons under the blazing hot Florida sun — is that there are two things in play right now that do indeed give the Rays a real and legitimate home field advantage. This week, it helped them a lot, really for the first time since they moved across the bay.
“I know that we’re capable of doing that,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said when asked about playing better baseball after three days of sthinking up the place. “I think that today was the first time, halfway through the game, that the environment (at Steinbrenner Field) creeps into your head a little bit. It’s tough. It’s really hot. The environment is just different.
“I don’t want to say that we’re spoiled, but everyone has earned the right to play in the big leagues at a big-league ballpark, so I think that creeps in a bit today. The highs and lows, we have to figure that out. We have to be better at being more consistent. That’s when you see the true identity of who we are,