Blue Jays fortune finally turns in much-needed win vs. Yankees
Steven Matz goes 6 2/3 innings, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his league leading 16 home run of the season as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees 6-2. | May 25, 2021, 11:02 PM
May 25, 2021, 11:02 PM
Lately, if there’s demoralizing fashion in which to lose a baseball game, the Toronto Blue Jays have found their way to it. It’s just been one of those stretches. Slumps at inopportune times. Late leads botched. The long-simmering consequences of overworking a bullpen bubbling to the surface. Bounces not going their way. Luck on the other side. All that and more conspiring to make it seem like the sky’s falling above them.
May 15th, 2021
Share
Joe Smith is on the precipice of history.
With Smith’s next appearance, he will become the 51st pitcher in MLB history to appear in at least 800 games, a testament to the veteran’s success and longevity.
“It’s pretty cool, man, just to be around this long and still pitching and still getting outs and knowing you can still do this thing,” Smith said. “But 1,000 was, or is, the goal. It just makes you realize how hard that number is to get to.”
Smith fondly recalled the first outing of his career. Back on Opening Day 2007, Smith was a mere rookie for the Mets, who were at Busch Stadium to take on the defending champion Cardinals in a rematch of the epic 06 National League Championship Series.
Happy Birthday Josh Phelps
Share this story
Josh Phelps turns 43 today.
Phelps was one of the
Blue Jays catchers of the future who didn’t turn out to be a catcher. Josh was #36 on the Baseball America top 100 prospects before the 2002 season.
He was terrific coming up through our minor league system. In 2001 he hit .292/.406/.562 with 31 home runs in 136 games with the Double-A
Tennessee Smokies. 2002 he hit .292/.380/.658 with 24 home runs in 70 games at Triple-A
Syracuse. We thought we had someone who could slug in the middle of the order with another of our catchers of the future,
Carlos Delgado.
After getting one at-bat in 2000 and 12 at-bats in 2001 (without getting a hit), the Jays called up in June of 2002. He didn’t hit his first home run until his 14th game, but he would finish the game with 15 home runs and a .309/.352/.562 line in 83 games, playing DH. On August 29th, he hit two home runs of
May 2, 2021
Myles Straw grew up a big Tampa Bay Rays fan and has been to hundreds of games at Tropicana Field. Much for that reason, he’s more than a little familiar with Brandon Guyer. Which isn’t to say that Straw emulates the recently-retired outfielder. Guyer reached base via HBP a bruise-worthy 85 times from 2014-2018, and he did so despite never getting as many as 400 plate appearances in a single season. The bulk of his plunkings came in a Rays uniform.
When I talked to Straw this past Wednesday, he had played in 120 big-league games, all with the Houston Astros. He had never been hit by a pitch.
Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is off to a monster start this season, and he would not let a three-time Cy Young winner stand in the path of his destruction.
As the Toronto Blue Jays took on the Nationals at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Vladdy demolished a pair of pitches from Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer and sent them into orbit.
The first one was a go-ahead grand slam off Scherzer in the third inning, a 415-foot home run to left field. Just listen to the sound of this thing off the bat.
A #PLAKATA, but make it G R A N D pic.twitter.com/IZZXYWPaYC