In the Unlikely Event Drew Hutchison Posts a Sub-5.00 ERA, How Will You React? (Toronto Blue Jays 2016)

That got silly.

Missed this brawl for the other one. Benoit's hurt, Travis may be--could be disastrous long-term.

Benoit has a torn calf.

i'm starting to feel pretty pissed off with Happ for even starting this whole stupidity.

Jays have been great at times the past couple of weeks, but they've also had three, maybe four chances to pretty much lock up the top wild-card spot, and they just can't seem to do it. I think we are essentially going to back into the playoffs.

uh oh

Weird AB for Bautista in the 9th. The crowd either hadn't seriously entertained the possibility that the Jays may not make the playoffs period (not out of the question--25% chance?), or they were so immersed in the game they weren't thinking beyond the moment. But it's hard to imagine Bautista being back here next year, and, after striking out, there was no that-could-be-it farewell ovation at all. I guess everyone was just too down.

The Jays led the AL in attendance this year! I never would have believed that could happen again.

Lots of jays fans in Boston tonight going to the game.

Reliving 1987.

Blown leads in three of the past five games, tigers one back, yep this is what backing into the playoffs is like (if we even make it).

144 permutations remain:
Home WC: 34
Away WC: 33
Host Play In Game 163: 31
3-way Tie: 7
4-way Tie: 1
Out: 38

voting 1

Pat Tabler says a lot of stuff, and occasionally he hits upon something: "add-on runs" have been a huge problem the last few weeks. There've been so many games where they jumped to a modest lead and had two or three AB in the middle innings where they could've broken the game wide open. Had a couple tonight. The bullpen's been bad, but so many of those games never should have been close in the first place.

And while I'm in a foul mood, Martin, after a fantastic August, has been flat-out terrible this month. Even his fielding's a problem now.

Tabler is right. Ten hits and six walks tonight but only three runs scored.

A's rookie who's been great his first four starts going against the M's tomorrow.

That pretty much sums up where we are right now: counting on the A's rookie who's been great his first four starts to pitch well against the M's tomorrow. Plus, and, also...

Tried to corroborate my (or Tabler's) "add-on runs" theory by going through the boxscores of our 16 September losses and looking for games where a) we had a lead by the third or fourth inning and b) didn't add on to the lead in situations where we had someone on third with less than two out. Could only find one such game early in the month against the Yankees--even last night didn't qualify. Maybe I'm not looking carefully enough, maybe a lot of the missed opportunities happened with two outs, or maybe they happened in games we ended up winning anyway (I only checked losses). Or maybe Tabler and I are dreaming the whole thing up--it sure feels like we've had numerous opportunities the past few weeks to break games wide open.

I would check for the number of times that the sum of walks + hits were more than three times the number of runs scored in a loss. Such as last night.

In the 7-5 loss to the Yankees, they had six hits and eight walks plus a runner reach on an error. Plenty of runners were on throughout the game and the bullpen blew it in the ninth.

In the 3-2 loss to Baltimore they had six hits and four walks. Again, plenty of men on base but the bullpen blew the lead in the ninth again.

Last night it was more of the same. Oh wait the bullpen blew the game in the seventh, and the Jays had two runners on in the eighth and ninth against their best relievers and couldn't score at all. That's. .. better than a blown ninth inning lead?

The silver lining is that we can't be mathematically eliminated today. Yay!

Hey, some help.

Gibbons is trying to squeeze another inning out of Happ. NOW I'm nervous.

Really need another run or two. I feel like there's no way they hold onto a one-run lead for two innings.

Osuna for six outs, wow. Gibbons has even less faith in the set-up guys than I do. Think I would have left Grilli in--Betts' double was a total fluke.

And there he goes trying to get another inning out of Grilli. If Gibbons doesn't trust anyone other than Grilli and Osuna, and was prepared to use Osuna for two innings, then why not bring him in to start the eighth?

lol wtf just happened a balk

a balk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Orioles lose, Tigers lose, Mariners losing. And we do that.

The Red Sox tied the game in the most unimpressive way possible (flukey check swing double, walk, double play, balk) but OTOH the Jays were on their way to their most unimpressive big win ever so I guess it's fair.

This is going to be excruciating.

(I actually thought the double play was my first-ever triple play...)

The Jays ... manufactured a run on no hits?? In the ninth inning on the road?

That was a hell of an at-bat by Carrera, who looked completely overmatched against Kimbrel but managed to get the fly ball they needed.

Holy shit they did it.

I feel more exhausted than elated. I am right that we've at least clinched a Wild-Card tiebreaker?

Am I right...

Yes--at the very least, another game after tomorrow. If they win tomorrow, I'm not sure if that clinches one of the two wild cards.

Yes, and if Seattle loses we've clinched a WC.

If so, it'll be interesting to see how they handle tomorrow's game.

Ah no, Detroit would have to play the make up game vs Cleveland on Monday if they win and either BAL or TOR lose tomorrow, so no, nothing is clinched yet and it's all hands on deck tomorrow.

i'd be down for a 4 way tie

I don't know about all the permutations if we lose, but if we can win tomorrow, we guarantee the Wild Card game will be at home against whoever.

Too perfect that we'll be going against Price.

Ominous: hitting Price hard, nothing to show for it.

Jays have two guys in the lineup pretty much every day, Martin and Upton, who are hitting a combined ~.150 since Sept. 1.

God. I love the movement Sanchez gets on his pitches when he's throwing well.

good stuff

Obviously Sanchez won't go more than seven. But this is like a perfect storm right now. When you weigh the game situation, the pitcher (entire rotation has pretty much revolved around him), how crucial the game is, and the state of our bullpen (five blown saves in seven games, set-up guy and closer over-used), I wouldn't want to be Gibbons right now. This is like the mother of guaranteed second-guessing.

feel bad for the kid

"What the fuck?!"

Gotta keep this from getting ugly now.

No idea how we come out of this with a win. I guess they go to Cecil and hope he can last two.

haha that's the spirit