Ben Nicholson-Smith

We can't talk about the division.

So it's wildcard push time, and that puts a lot of pressure on someone like Kevin Gosman.

Like, I think that that's a really...

know it's it's an insightful comment from him um to to honestly say like hey it feels like we haven't hit our stride it feels like we're still searching for that momentum but you think about where they'd be without kevin cosman and he was really hard on himself after that series opener in atlanta on tuesday where he said hey i've got to be better i can't allow these first inning runs i can't walk the leadoff hitter of course there's an element of truth to that but also the

being pretty hard on himself when he's like the one guy who's kind of holding this all together where if Patrick Corbin, Trey Savage or Kevin Gosman doesn't have a good outing that's five or six innings then there's just chaos for the pitching staff then there's more pressure on the offense to overcome a deficit so as much as Gosman was self-critical he's really kind of holding this together in a lot of ways.

Yeah, I think with Vlad Jr.

this season, it's important to acknowledge, and I think we've hopefully done that here on ATL, it's important to acknowledge that he is doing some things right, and getting gone base at a 390 clip is not easy, and it is significant, and it does help the Blue Jays.

At the same time, we know there's more in there.

And so he's getting paid $500 million.

He's in his age 27 season.

We've seen him hit 48 home runs in the major leagues before.

It sure would be nice at a time that others are not producing or others are not healthy to see Vlad Jr.

have

18 home runs at this point in the season or 13 or 14 or whatever the number would be um and the fact is he's got three so is what it is at this point they have to find a way just to flesh out that offense so it's a good thing for them that Kazuma Okamoto's hitting some opposite field bombs and Jesus Sanchez seems to have found uh his his power stroke Johandric Pignango keeps having these two hit games Arnie Clement is having just quietly a really really good offensive season so I

They need those things to continue.

And then ideal world, you know, you have Charles McAdoo run into a few more baseballs and maybe David Schneider can find a way to heat up at AAA.

He's walking a ton down there, by the way, not striking out, also not really swinging or hitting yet.

He's just walking almost all the time at AAA.

But, you know, you need those supplementary players to step up and provide, you know, some more offense at a time that Vladdy's not hitting home runs.

Yeah, I think that is safe to say.