When the Wild Card spherical was occurring, all I wished was for the Sox to beat the Yankees. For the sake of the rivalry and the 20+ years of beating them within the postseason for the reason that Evil Empire days, I used to be fully content material with getting swept within the ALDS. I had—and have—a really actual feeling that had we made it to the ALDS, the Blue Jays would’ve promptly stomped on us in three video games, or on the absolute most would’ve gotten us in 4, had Crochet been in a position to shove at Fenway.
There have been flaws with our one postseason roster, definitely, with injured gamers lacking in motion (particularly Lucas Giolito and Roman Anthony) and a younger core who hadn’t ever been to the postseason struggling beneath the brilliant lights, whether or not within the batter’s field or within the outfield. (There was that Nathaniel Lowe error additionally, however he’s beside my level.)
The present Blue Jays core has, for essentially the most half, seen postseason motion, even when it was a complete of 4 video games over two years they usually obtained swept each instances. They’re in a position to put the ball in play relentlessly and drive in runners on base, whereas the Purple Sox had bother with runners in scoring place all season. Their starters and bullpen obtained by way of a homer-heavy Yankees lineup. And whereas they’d an error filled-game like we did, their timing was higher; it was Sport 3, once they have been nonetheless up 2-1 afterward in a 5 sport collection.
I’ve heard on-line lots of reward for the Blue Jays crew from Yankee followers, and rightfully so. Jomboy Media, in its breakdown of the final sport, talked about how much they like Blue Jays baseball as a result of it’s again to extra conventional baseball play, reasonably than the “three true outcomes” type of play the Yankees have tailored. And for the sake of the sport, you need to see extra Blue Jays baseball throughout each leagues. Even when John Schneider is being annoying, they play a greater model of the sport.
With a more healthy crew and a few helpful offseason acquisitions, I consider the Purple Sox can get to the identical caliber of play that the Blue Jays are enjoying proper now. Whether or not it’s sufficient to take the Blue Jays the complete distance shall be as much as the Baseball Gods, however it’s development.
And hey, if one in every of our guys couldn’t go “Daaaaa Jankees lose!” on stay TV, then Vladdy doing it’s in all probability second greatest.
