Some back wins are great, but tonight, Jays, if you scored a dozen in the first inning and led from wire-to-wire, I’d really be ok with it.
So, Vlad’s play was set up beforehand. I figured it had to be, I don’t know that Addison Barger would have been ready to take a throw if he hadn’t had a heads-up. But isn’t it amazing that Vlad sees the possibility of an out at third, and then he gets the ball hit to him. That is a guy who is in the game and thinking. How many ground balls are hit at the first
baseman in your average MLB game? Two? Three? And yet, Vlad thought if the ball comes to me, I’m throwing to third, and then the ball comes to him, hard enough to make the play to third.
And, didn’t Jose Altuve have the worst inning? At the top of the inning, he slowly heads to third, when he’s the go-ahead run. And in the bottom of the inning, he’s slow to get to a grounder, allowing Vlad to beat out the throw to first? In the old days, Altuve would sit for the next game or two, to “think about what he’s done.”
Dan Shulman’s tweet mentions that Vlad’s throw to third was his second-hardest throw of the season, and his run to first, in the bottom of the inning, was his second fastest of the season (take that sore hamstring). I do not think you go as hard as you can on every ground out; I think that leads to issues. There are only two former Jays that I thought went as hard as they could to first on every play, Brett Lawrie and Vernon Wells and they didn’t age well, both dealing with leg issues for much of their careers. And 99% of the time, a ground ball to second, you know you are out unless the throw is wide, and if it is, you’ll be safe anyway.
But picking your moments, a soft grounder that the second baseman has to come in on and make a good play, go hard.
If you want to see the play again:
Vlad is on a nice little run, six games in a row with two or more hits. A .615/.655/.962 line with three doubles, two home runs, three walks, two strikeouts and one steal. Eight runs and five RBI in those six games. His batting average has gone from .287 to .304 in those six games.
Beyond Vlad there are others who made for one of the most exciting games of the season:
- Daulton Varsho, who isn’t going to get enough playing time to get a Gold Glove, made two terrific catches. And a couple of other good ones. He got his steps in yesterday.
- Addison Barger, as well as being on the receiving end of Vlad’s throw, had a double and made a terrific throw himself across to Vlad, which I’m sure hurt Vlad’s hand. His arm strength allows him time to take a moment and gather himself before making a throw. Third basemen are going to make errors, they are a long way from first and make a lot of bang-bang plays.
- Heineman getting the game winner. That was a spot where you can’t strike out, and the pitcher is doing his best to strike you out.
- IKF, who isn’t our favourite player, came up big when we needed it. And his post game interview was perfect.
- Schneider taking that walk, was another big moment. We were surprised when he didn’t pinch-hit earlier, but he came up big when needed.
- 4.1 shutout innings from a much-maligned bullpen gave us the chance at the win. Yariel Rodriguez making that very hard throw to first on the ground out was one of the most amusing plays of the day. Brendon Little got the strikeout when we needed one. Tommy Nance and Seranthony Dominguez were solid. And Jeff Hoffman managed to get out of the 10th without allowing the Manfred Man to score.
- Springer’s home run was big. I wish he hadn’t struck out in the ninth, these things happen.
- Clement getting a hit off the right-hander Bryan Abreu in the ninth, started the come back.
On Hoffman:
Chris Conroy didn’t have the best day behind the plate:
