Chapter 1: What were the highlights of Dylan Cease's recent outing?
Full disclosure, when that camp got to 0-2, I didn't feel too good about things. Dalton Varshow opting not to challenge. The 0-1 pitch that took it to 0-2 that was safely a ball would have been 1-1. He's down 0-2. Base is loaded. Jays in extra innings again. Didn't feel very good.
especially given Dalton Varshow's struggles of late and the fact that Aaron Brooks, while not a particularly effective pitcher, was trying to just bring the heat right at the top of the zone, where Dalton Varshow sometimes struggles as it was.
Chapter 2: How did Daulton Varsho's Grand Slam impact the Blue Jays' season?
Brooks missed a couple, kept spotting it right at the top of the zone, and on the fourth look at a fastball that clipped or was around clipping the top edge of the strike zone, Dalton Varshow takes it for a walk-off grand slam, the fifth walk-off grand slam in Toronto Blue Jays history. A 5-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Rays, one that they needed pretty badly.
It avoids a double sweep at the hands of the Rays. It gets them a win heading into an off day before they hit the road for a 17-game and 17-day stretch. Six of those are at home, but 11 are on the road against teams they're in the mix with in the American League East and the American League wildcard race. That begins Friday in Detroit.
Tigers don't have probable pitchers yet, but we'll set that one up with Ryan Spielberg's of Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball in a little bit here.
Chapter 3: What challenges do the Blue Jays face in their upcoming 17-game stretch?
We'll set it up tomorrow, of course, as well. But we have a very oasis of a victory for the Toronto Blue Jays to break down. This is Jay Stock Plus, by the way, Blake Murphy with you and joining me on the line, my very good friend, Jonah Bierenbaum of The Score. Jonah, how we doing, pal? Doing great, brother. How are you? Good, man.
Before we get into how badly the team needed that, how badly did you need that? Because if you look at the text between yourself and me and Joe Wolfond, we were all going just a little insane the last little bit there. Two back-to-back extra inning losses to complete a double sweep at the hands of the Rays. This would have been a very different segment today, I imagine.
Yeah, definitely. That was, that was manna in the desert, man. Desperately, desperately needed. You lose that game.
Chapter 4: Who is Ryan Spilborghs and what insights does he bring about the Tigers?
You squander that start from Dylan sees and it's full on meltdown time for whichever fans hadn't already to that point melted down. We got to melt down. Without that win, man, the Jays fall a season-worst seven games below .500. As you said, they suffer a second straight sweep at the hands of the Rays and fall 11.5 games back of the division.
Would have gone 2-4 on the homestand heading into a road trip that will take them through the Bronx and have them playing...
against the yankees who are obviously playing really really good baseball and ultimately you lose that game and i think even the most like ruthlessly optimistic fans in the jays fan base are saying yeah it's not our year but now those fans they're laughing man they're putting up their feet they're smoking cigars at least until friday uh instead of another awful loss and and despite that dispiriting top of the 10th that set the table for another punishing defeat the jays get to aaron brooks obviously making his first mlb appearance since 2024
They load up the bases, and they finally get that big swing that has eluded them so many times early this season with the VAR show Grand Slam.
That Grand Slam, by the way, was the Jays' first and only extra base hit of the game, and we can only hope that that swing man can do for this team what Bo Bichette's pinch hit home run in Texas in late May of last year did for a struggling Blue Jays team, spark a winning streak and spark an extended stretch of strong play because this team, the 2026 Blue Jays,
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Chapter 5: How are the Colorado Rockies performing this season?
really has yet to put together an extended stretch of strong play this season, which is troubling because we're two weeks out from June.
Yeah, it's a relief. It's a breath of fresh air, certainly. The Aaron Brooks of it all as well. People were acting like, oh, it's a nobody. He's been in the league on and off since 2014. He has one of the most fascinating baseball reference pages out there.
Chapter 6: What changes have been made in the Rockies' front office?
And he played in the NFL and NBA.
He played quarterback for the Saints.
Yeah, and undersized point guard for the Houston Rockets. It's great.
And he's Michael Vick's cousin.
Yeah, wow. Wow. Let's leave that one.
We'll just move right on.
Yeah, it was not a particularly good pitching performance from Aaron Brooks.
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Chapter 7: What strategies are the Blue Jays employing to handle injuries?
Again, he did spot a couple right at the top of the zone for Dalton Varshow, and that's where you want to put Velocity. If you look at some of the earlier at-bats in that inning, he was kind of all over the place. But Dalton Varshow does the job, takes it opposite field even. If you are... Look, obviously, for fans, it's fun to have that.
Chapter 8: What are the expectations for Trey Yassavage's upcoming start?
For the team, it's great heading into the road trip. Dalton Varsha would also be going through it a little bit. And I know that that grand slam pushes his overall stat line back above the even watermark in terms of league average, gets the way to runs created plus back north of 100.
But given that he hasn't been super effective defensively by his lofty standards either, how much of an exhale, I guess, is that for Mr. Two True Outcomes, Dalton Varsha?
Yeah, it's enormous, man. He needed that in the worst way. I mean, he had had that one stretch, you know, about a month ago where he hit three home runs in a span of I think it was four games. And it was like, oh, Varshow is going to be the Varshow that we saw last year where he was one of the most efficient home run hitters in all of baseball, albeit over just 71 regular season games.
And then the Varshow that he looked like in spring training, too. And then... That didn't happen right over the first six weeks of the season. He was really struggling to look like the hitter that he looked like last year and was really struggling to keep that OPS plus at an even league average at 100. So it's great to see it.
It's great to see him, A, driving the ball the other way with authority. He seldom does that. And B... handling elevated velocity. Now, if Aaron Brooks is sitting 95, 96, 97, maybe he doesn't get to that pitch and maybe the outcome is very different. But credit to him, he recognized that Brooks, even with 92, 93, is still going to try to attack him up with heaters.
And Varshow made the adjustment and handled 92.6 up above the strike zone and kept fouling it off, fouling it off until he got one that he was able to drive. And yeah, It was, in I guess a couple of ways, kind of an unexpected counterintuitive outcome, him hitting elevated velocity the other way with authority. But, man, did he ever need that?
And hopefully this can spark a stretch now for him, especially considering he's four and a half months out from free agency. And, you know, kind of with each passing week where he's not the impact player that we know he can be, he's leaving millions of dollars on the table. So, yeah, he has tremendous incentive, obviously.
uh to be at his best over the course of this season and the blue jays are going to need it
Yeah, they absolutely are, especially when you look at some of the injuries and some of the lack of home run power that this lineup has shown. Don Varshow, even if he's, you know, never going to be a high threes on base guy, he's a guy who can be a power threat in the middle of the lineup when he's going.
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