The 2013 do-over Toronto Blue Jays (AKA the 2014 Blue Jays Thread)

7-1 in the 2nd!!

Sorry, Tug McGraw, that's our new slogan: "I want to believe!" (Extended director's cut: "I want to believe! I really do--I'm just not sure I have anything left at this point.")

Win over the A's? 1.5 game lead in the East? I still can't see how we're going to pull this off with only one reliable starting pitcher.

I did not expect a sweep of the A's.

When they fluffed up that one inning, I thought they'd lose for sure. Somewhat in shock. (The Jays were up by a run in the middle of the game, and they had bases loaded, none out, Bautista and Encarnacion coming up. After an out at the plate and the popular 8-1 putout--after an unsuccessful appeal--they came out of the inning with one run.)

It was definitely one of those games when I was waiting for them to somehow blow it. I thought bringing out Happ for the 7th was a mistake, but he turned in his best inning of the game. McGowan looked shaky too but he somehow got through his inning. And of course there was inning with the 8-1 putout at second on a misjudged pop up, right after Reyes got thrown out at the plate.

juggernaut

7 games!

myself and some coworkers, on a whim, went to the game today. did not disappoint.

Skepticism at Sports Illustrated:

http://mlb.si.com/2014/05/28/toronto-blue-jays-first-place-al-east-contenders/?eref=sihp

I'm skeptical too, but I'm not sure I get the logic of: last year this wouldn't have been a surprise, they barely changed anything, now this year it's suspect.

i don't see a cakewalk, but this is the proverbial "winnable" division.

xpost I agree, it's the same as last year's team, and that team didn't have enough pitching either.

petty much. we are now without Josh Johnson occupying the DL, and instead this year have Hutch and Drabek back from tommy John. so.. slight improvement?

at any rate i think we're a starter &/or 2B away from being able to hang onto 1st long term.

This is Monday morning quarterbacking, but the thing I like best about this year's team so far is Francisco. I didn't pay any attention when the Jays picked him up. But the one thing I always notice on playoff teams are these 2-3 WAR guys that come cheap and in a lot of cases nobody wanted. I go back and look at Francisco's career box, and you can see that there was some potential for a breakout year: in 2012-13, he hit 27 HR in 540 AB. I'm sure such acquisitions don't work out more often than not, but they make such a difference when they do. He's getting 1.3 million this year.

i wouldn't expect Francisco to keep his current pace up. he's already cooling off noticeably.

Encarnacion's going crazy--just hit his second of the game, upper deck, now has 16 HR and 33 RBI for the month.

@gregorMLB
Encarnacion has 16 in the month of May. That's one shy of the Barry Bonds mark set in May of 2001. #BlueJays

@gregorMLB
Encarnacion's five multi-homer games in the month are tied for most Major League history. Albert Belle (Sept. 95),Harmon Killebrew (May, 59)

welp

Don't know if there's a good way to end a winning streak, but that ain't it.

the 9-3 putout was nice at least

Billy Butler makes a mad dash to first on a single to right field.

Thank goodness. I'm sure I wasn't the only one nervous about Thursday night triggering a losing streak.

7 runs in the first inning = nope, all good!!

4-0 win behind Buerhle. I like this team.

KC being so anemic, I wish they'd won three, but that's okay, they came back well. Double and another homer for Encarnacion--needs a nickname.

ya, we can't really call him E5 anymore!

Mr. May's no good, just ask Dave Winfield.

double E , En-car-smash-ee-on (Encore-smash-home-run?), EdTV, E3, Ed-wing, Ed Teach me to walk the parrot

i can come up with a hundred more totally unviable options upon request. I like Ed-wing, but I just call him Eddie

Yankees lost tonight, so a four-game lead. Brace yourself, NoTime and Thinwall: I went back through the yearly logs, and the Jays haven't had a four-game lead since 1993.

o shiii

amazing.

I'm not booing, I'm saying "Looooooup."

I'm waiting for the bottom to fall out, so may as well revel in this for as long as it lasts. They're at .600 right now; the last time I can find them at .600 (excluding small early-season samples) is July 2, 1993, when they were just beginning a bad 10-game stretch.

On an 18-4 run, 2nd best record in the league, 4.5 game lead, I can hardly believe I'm typing this.

i did math last night. if they play .500 ball the rest of the season, that would still win them the first wild card slot!

I don't think there will be this much parity until the end of the season, so 86-87 wins won't be enough for the first wild card. We need to top the 88 wins from 1998 so that nobody can say that the Jays winningest season since winning the Series in '92-'93 happened under Tim "hitting a baseball is nothing compared to what I went through in Nam (or not)" Johnson.

i have not thought about that guy in years.

This board is full of jokes about him! (mostly mine)

When was the last time we swept the Tigers in Detroit?

The sort of good Jays teams in recent years always crumbled when they faced the best teams in the league. Last years' team had that 11-game win streak and then got crushed by Detroit, Boston, and Tampa Bay.

Sept. 16-18, 2003, according to some website out of Michigan.

I see a tough June ahead. Three each against the Cardinals and Orioles, six with the Yankees; the rest of their games are against teams around .500 (Reds, Twins, White Sox). Anyway, they can't take wins away, so build up a cushion now when everything's going miraculously right. If they're even playing for a wild card in late September, I'll be happy.

They were running down Blue Jay teams through 60 games on the radio today. The only ones better than this year were '84, '85, '87 (the best at 39-21), and '92.

Jimmy Key threw out the first pitch tonight, and he just spent an inning in the broadcast booth with Martinez and Pat Tabler. Had no idea he was so funny! He also talked about breaking in: first guy he ever faced was Rod Carew with the bases loaded, got him to ground into an inning-ending double play, didn't allow a runner for the next three innings, and in total retired the first 16 batters he faced.

3.6 K/9 his first year as a starter (1985)

I was just looking at his career box before your post. That was something of an anomaly--the rest of his career, he was between 4.2-6.6, and in most years he was around 5.5-6.0 like clockwork. What I really noticed was his last three seasons, when he was 35-37: 6.2/6.0/6.0 (when that was still a pretty good figure).

In a lot of ways, he was my favourite pitcher ever. Watching him was like watching the way the Spurs passed last night--such incredibly fluidity. (When the Spurs weren't turning it over, that is.)

Bottom of the 7th, Jays up by one, bases loaded, none out, Bautista up. Triple play--first one I've seen in 44 years of watching baseball. I keep waiting for black cats and cracked mirrors, maybe this is it.

In a lot of ways, he was my favourite pitcher ever. Watching him was like watching the way the Spurs passed last night--such incredibly fluidity. (When the Spurs weren't turning it over, that is.)

Along with Fernandez, Moseby, Barfield, and Bell, he was one of my favorite '80s Blue Jays.

Jays left the bases loaded three times, hit into the triple play, got a Steve Bartman play overturned in the ninth, and won again, 2-1. Early MVP favourites clearly Donaldson and Bautista.

Key's K/9 was good for the era, it was about the same as Stieb's -- surprising considering their reputations (crafty lefty vs ace pitcher with a wipeout slider).

Jays are looking like amateurs today hacking away against Shelby Miller. Gibbons looking dumb by issuing a completely unnecessary IBB in the 8th and setting up a big inning.