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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
All right, welcome to Blair and Barker, brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving Canadians credit for 30 years. And it hasn't been 30 years since the Jays had an outburst, an offensive outburst like they did in the first inning. On Sunday, it just seems like it. The Jays go into Anaheim tonight for the first game of a three-game series after a 10-4 win over Arizona.
Quite a first inning. Seven hits, eight runners to open the game, ties a club record. In terms of hits, it was September 15, 2007. In terms of runners to reach base, May 18, 2014. That eight-run first inning included bases loaded doubles by Okamoto and by Nathan Lucas. That was a while in coming, wasn't it?
Yeah, it is amazing when you get your pitch and you just don't go up there swinging at strikes, you know, what kind of damage you can do to the big part of the field. And that's exactly what happened. Obviously, they figured out what was wrong with Nathan Lucas. That helps getting on base in front of Vladdy Okamoto. Don't like the ball up. Don't like the ball away. Why look for it?
I mean, that's basically where they're at in the season. Enough of this, you know, it's early talk around that lineup. It's not early in that clubhouse, I can tell you that, the people at least that I've been talking to.
Chapter 2: What led to the Blue Jays' offensive outburst against the Diamondbacks?
And I think going forward, you're going to start to see a few more, you know, guys trying to take certain pitches that they can't do damage on. There's a reason why Johns came out and – You know, the reporting at our station they've been doing the last couple of days about stop swinging at everything. Enough of that. Like, you know, we all know who's not here.
But we do have good enough hitters that can go up there that have had success at this level. And we've seen you do it. And have better at bats and give yourself a chance to do damage to the big part of the field. And, you know, you're not going to have too many first innings like that. Obviously, the dude on the mound was having trouble getting it to weaknesses.
Everybody knows where to throw certain people in that lineup. When you can't get it up – But also on the flip side of it, you got to give them credit. They went out there. They, you know, looked for a certain pitch. They got it. When they got it, they didn't miss it.
It was interesting hearing David Popkins talk after Saturday's loss to the Diamondbacks, you know, in conversation with Shai Davidian. They just talked about trying to be hunters a little more when you go up to the plate.
I guess. I mean, you know, look, it's, you know, they had a whole spring training to figure this out. You know, this is basically the same lineup as last year. I get it. You know, we all know who's not there. We all know that when Springer's not in there and Kirky's not in there, a lot of the guys you could pitch the same way.
That's why sometimes if a guy gets on the mound who knows how to pitch, can work through that lineup pretty easy. And a lot of the times, not a lot of people, you know, are afraid to throw Vladdy a fastball. They're just not. He's not slugging enough off the fastball that they're afraid to throw it to him. And the other guys, you can get them out a lot of the times in big spots up.
So I'm assuming that's what David's talking about is, you know, I don't get the hunter and the hunted. Okay, that's the way you want to talk about it. That's fine. For me, it was, if you look at the at-bats, right, the Lucas, it was a 1-0 fastball middle single. I mentioned middle. That's where you get it. You don't swing at the one to get the one down the middle.
I say this to everybody all the time. I've been there. It's very hard to do when you look up at the scoreboard and you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing to get to a 1-0 count to force the guy in the middle of the zone. The Ernie Clement thing was a fastball middle up. The Sanchez thing was an 0-0 fastball right down the middle. The Vladdy, four-pitch at bat.
He missed a couple of heaters. He stayed inside one. Fighting it off. It's what Vladdy does. He's a really good hitter. Eloy Jimenez, that's a really good pitch. That's a slider down and away. Stayed on it. Stayed in a big part of the field. Kept the shoulder square. I mean, it's baseball hitting 101 kind of thing. Andres Jimenez, that was probably the best at batting that whole thing.
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Chapter 3: Can the Blue Jays maintain their momentum against the Angels?
You know how many people offensively would kill to be able to do the things that he does? And just that hand thing that he does, that's the reason. And John, God love him. You know, it's – slug to the pull side. That's all – you know, again, that's all you want.
If I'm a posy pitcher, I don't know why you'd ever – why you'd ever throw him something other than a fastball is just mind-boggling. But – so, yeah, I don't care about what he does on the defensive side. You know, he's trying. It's like everybody else when you're losing, everybody really pokes and points and – Hones in on everything, little thing you're trying to do.
Like Eric Lauer makes a comment and everybody hones in on that.
That's controllable. The other things is a human mistake. Yeah. It's like, you know, it's just when you're losing, everybody needs to – that's when everybody should get quieter. I do what I'm told right now. And then when you start doing things and everybody's all running in the same direction and you're winning more than you're losing, say what you want to say. No, John won't care. All right.
Jeff Hoffman.
What do you make of that?
Yeah, I think they'll pitch Varland in the biggest spots in the game. That could be the eighth inning. That could be the ninth inning. I think that's why John hasn't come out and said that Louie Varland's my closer because John wants to use him in the biggest moments, just like he did in the 2-2 game. Jeff Hoffman.
8-9-1 in the order. Yeah, I'm with you. Jeff Hoffman can still come out in the ninth, but the biggest part of the game, if it's the eighth, that's Louie Varland.
That's what I just said. Yeah. Yeah, you made me chat with the Eric Lauer thing. Why? I just think it's silly. Well, you got a little soft, dude. I'm not soft. You're the first one to raise your hand and just, oh, well, it's me. They make so much money. Who cares if that extra million they didn't make in arbitration? Yeah, I never.
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Chapter 4: What are Eric Lauer's concerns about the opener strategy?
If you were running the organization, you know, they'd say what they want to say when they want to say it. You know, everybody says, you know, it's like that hockey mentality. Everybody has to have a leader.
Well, you poo-poo the hockey mentality all the time.
Well, you know, John's got to be the leader of the team. And when you're poking the finger at John and saying, hey, I hate that opener. Basically, why'd you do it?
No, he said I hate it. I can't stand it. He said I hate it. I can't stand it. He did not say he didn't understand why they were doing it. I mean, that's basically what he said. He said he personally hated it. No, he said he hated it, and he can't stand it. He did not question why they are doing it. He hated it, and he couldn't stand it because of what it did to his routine.
He did not question why they did it. He's being very selfish, and I'm okay with that.
Okay.
Nathan Lucas. We talked to John on Friday, and John referred to Nathan Lucas going through some things. Look, I don't understand... ACLs and MCLs and stuff like that. So I'm not going to begin to explain vertigo. But Nathan Lucas has been diagnosed with it. He apparently saw a specialist in Arizona.
And all I can tell you is if you know anybody who's had it, and there are people out there who've had it, Talk to them about what he's going through. Or if you have to, just go online and see what it is. I mean, it's just, I use the word freaky, and I don't want to use that to diminish it in any way.
But I cannot imagine getting up in the morning and coming into work, let alone standing on a field in front of 38,000 people and trying to do stuff with what Nathan Lucas went through. And whatever, the last couple of games, Nathan Lucas has been really good. And we've talked about it. I mean, we cheer for the guy. We cheer for the, I was a big part of what this team did last year.
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