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Chapter 1: What did the Blue Jays achieve in their latest game against the Guardians?
Well, Nick, we can now officially say something we have not been able to say literally all season. The Blue Jays have won two straight series. A 4-2 win today here at the Rogers Center. Three of those four runs coming off the bat of Jesus Sanchez. The bullpen looked good again, including Louis Varlin, who gets his second consecutive save. He slammed that door in the ninth.
It's a good day to not only be a Blue Jays fan, but a Toronto sports fan. A bad day, I think, to be a Cleveland sports fan as the Raptors vanquish the Cavaliers down the road as well. But a fun day here at the Rogers Center. Again, a 4-2 win. Jays now 12-15 on the season.
was an interesting ball game because it seemed early on that they were all over Slade Ciccone and he had struggled so much this season it felt like the Blue Jays were kind of jumping down his throat getting those early runs Corbin was very clean out of the gate missing more bats than usual and there was a world where this was going to be a fairly comfortable game but Ciccone really settled in
Corbin started to experience some trouble. The game hung in the balance. Braden Fischer came in in a critical time, shut things down. And then, you know, the order of the relievers is different perhaps than what we're used to. But these are the guys that John Schneider believes in in terms of his high leverage pitchers.
When the games are close, when he has a lead to protect, it's going to be Fischer. It's going to be Rodgers. It's going to be Varland.
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Chapter 2: How did Jesús Sánchez contribute to the Blue Jays' victory?
It's going to be Hoffman. Events have changed how those guys are ordered, and the season is long. That may still change. But those are the guys he wants out there when things are in the balance, and they did an absolutely fantastic job. Over four scoreless innings for that group really prevented a big rally. You never felt like Cleveland was on the verge of something big.
Relatively quiet run to the end there, and as you said, the Blue Jays have won two consecutive series. You might even say...
Chapter 3: What makes Louis Varland a potential permanent closer for the Blue Jays?
that they're rolling. But that could be hyperbole. That might be a step too far. But the Blue Jays, they got something going.
That is Nick Ashmore, and I'm Sho Ali. You're listening to Jay's Talk here on the Sportsnet Radio Network. We're also streaming on sportsnet.ca and on the Sportsnet app. You can give us a call, as always, 416-870-0590, 1-888-666-0590, star 590 on your cell. You can text us as well, 590-590, name and location. The People's Text Line, always open. Standard messaging and data rates may apply.
Yeah, can I now say... We're back? Can we say the Jays are back now? I've honestly been really resisting saying it. But is this that point now? Two straight series win? I'm, like, really close.
Chapter 4: What were the highlights of Patrick Corbin's performance?
The 500 line really feels important here. It's hard to say we're back when, you know, this team has come off a World Series appearance. They're still three games below 500. But, you know, if on Tuesday, Trey Savage has put in a great performance and they've already locked in a series win against the Red Sox... I think then you can even jump the gun one game below 500.
If we get to that point, maybe we do it.
You know, I think that's what I'll do. If they go 2-1 against the Red Sox starting tomorrow, I think we'll utter those we're back phrase. No premature webaculation here. Not for... Not just quite yet, okay? Not just quite yet. Before we continue any further, let's get to the player of the game. Brought to you by Capital One. Capital One giving credit to over 4 million Canadians and counting.
I feel like in a game like this, you can actually go a number of ways, right? You could go with... the player of the game as determined by Hazel May on the field, which was Jesus Sanchez, three of the four runs. You could go with Louis Varlin, who picked up his second straight save today. I mean, you could go with any of the relievers. I mean, you could go with the bullpen as a group.
Honestly, as you laid out at the beginning, they did not allow a run after Patrick Corbin departed this game. But where are you going today?
The bullpen as a group is valid, but I'm going to stay in my box here. I'm not going to bend the rules too much. I will give it to Jesus Sanchez. He delivered the huge hit that put them ahead. He drove in a run earlier in the game. There have been so many instances where the Jays have squandered run scoring opportunities this season.
Even a sack fly felt like a good outcome for the team at that point. A home run on a hanging curveball under 70 miles an hour. It was almost a bit of an awkward swing because it was so slow. I don't think he really thought that it was going to come in at that pace. And he sort of adjusted on the fly, was able to pull it out to right field.
I do want to throw a tiny little bit of credit to Vladi as well. Probably the most impressive hitter on the day in a sense. Absolutely robbed of extra bases. Could have been a 4 for 4 day for him, but Sanchez was the one who delivered the hits that actually allowed the runs to come on the board. The Jays have needed runs all day.
He's the one who gave them those that put them over the Guardians in this one.
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Chapter 5: How did the bullpen perform in the game against the Guardians?
we've seen the opposite at times right he is someone who likes to swing the bat he doesn't necessarily run massive walk rates as someone who's been the cleanup hitter a lot of time at least against right-handed pitching there have been quite a few big time at bats from jesus sanchez and to be honest there it's been a mixed bag there have been a few of them that have not been super impressive but as you mentioned this was a real battle
He showed that he had some contact ability. His strikeout rate, to be fair to him, is down this year over where it's been some points in his career. And his contact quality is so good that as long as the strikeout rate is relatively low, you feel like he's going to do damage. And that's what he did today.
416-870-0590, 1-888-666-0590, star 590 on your cell, 590-590, name and location. We'll go to the text line in a sec. Let's go to the phones, though, to lead us off here on the phones. It is Jack in the annex joining us here on Jay's Talk. Jack, what's up today?
Hey, guys, thanks for having me. I want to give a very quick shout-out to Johendrik Pignago for, hey, getting his first major league hit. And he looked really competitive as at-bats. He really put a charge in the ball in that first one to the warning track, and he's able to get one down in the second one. Just, you know, congrats to him. Hopefully we can see more of him.
The negative part I do want to ask about is Patrick Corbin. He looked pretty solid, but you could see he was starting to tire in the fifth. And I want to ask about the decision to not pull him after he got the double play. I know you don't love having to put Braden Fisher in to only get one out, get cold, and then have to go back in and pitch the next inning, but...
he really did start to look wavering there. And then on the first couple of pitchers, he gave out that double. But other than that, but big, big congrats to Senior Pignaco. Thanks, guys.
Jack, thanks for the call. Yeah, and Pignango, I mean, he did get his first Major League hit in his second Major League AB, which is really cool to see, so congratulations to him. And yeah, I think he was, what, 10 to 15 feet from getting a home run in his first Major League at-bat. You could see the contactability of his swings there, and the power that he has.
I mean, he was swinging right away, which is kind of what he's known for, right? I mean, that's kind of what he's known for even over the last number of years in the minors because he is one of those prospects that I feel like we've talked about on and off for years.
But, you know, going back to what John Schneider had said when we heard Pignango was getting called up a couple days ago, bad intentions at the plate. You can see that when he's standing in the box. So, yeah, nice to see him get the first major league hit out of the way early on in his career. So we can see what he's got going forward. On Patrick Corbin, though, so four and two-thirds,
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Chapter 6: What challenges is the Blue Jays' team facing moving forward?
That's kind of the conventional wisdom on that level of workload. And so everyone here, devoid of any direct information from Schneider, just assumed Varland wasn't available. But now that he has pitched, he's certainly not going to be available on Monday. I feel pretty comfortable saying that.
Schneider knew that things would be better for his future bullpen situation if he could just get Corbin through that inning and maybe a bat or two into the next one or maybe even a clean one with the way Slider was going. He was actually missing some bats. I get it. It just did not work out in this case.
416-870-0590, 1-888-666-0590, star 590 on your cell. Let's go to the phones again. Let's go to Eddie in Fort Erie joining us here on Jay's Talk. Eddie, what's up?
Not much, Joe. And Nick, how are you guys doing today?
Good, always fun when we can talk about two straight series wins, right? And I guess a Raptors win as well, although I'll save that for our compatriots on, I guess, Raptors talk.
Yeah, for sure. Well, I was also keeping an eye on the NFL draft as well. There you go. Yeah, so that was a great time that they had in Pittsburgh, so I was happy with that. Now, I know one of the callers talked about the pitching decision on the Blue Jays, and I'll go to the Guardian side as well for one of my comments. I was very surprised.
they didn't make a pitching change with Sanchez coming to the plate because as I saw the lefty warming up for the Guardians, I was like, okay, if he didn't face Varsha, then they're going to bring him in to face Sanchez because, you know, Schneider, you know, obviously won't take him out of that spot, you know, because he's a cleanup hitter, right?
And that's not good when you do that to your part of the order, right?
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Chapter 7: How did Vladimir Guerrero Jr. perform in the game and what does it mean for his season?
When you pinch hit, especially right there, but But either way, I was pleasantly surprised and good on Sanchez that he hung in there and hit one out. So that was great. Now, I'm very interested about this series with the Red Sox tomorrow night. Well, starting tomorrow night.
Oh, did we lose Eddie? All right, well. I'm also interested in that series. That's too bad. I thought Eddie was going to build up something really interesting there with the Red Sox series. We will get to the Red Sox series before we get out of here. But what did you think of keeping Ciccone in there? I mean, I kind of got this sense because he had not had the most interesting
even of seasons because it did feel like he was in some kind of rhythm. I just feel like that's truly all what Stephen Vogt was trying to do. Maybe just get him through six. He gets the quality start and then you get him out of there and you go to your bullpen. But, you know, maybe just a couple of too many pitches to Sanchez in the zone.
Honestly, I think that is harder to defend than what John Schneider did with Corbin because when it comes to Jesus Sanchez, he is so much less effective against left-handed pitching than right-handed pitching. That has been the story of his career. He's essentially been a platoon guy, and I'm not saying that's a totally unsolvable problem, but at the same time, he's in his late 20s at this point.
It's probably not going to change.
and so when you have the chance to bring in a southpaw against him you should probably make that move and now I do think that there's a chance that Schneider would have pinch hit there but I don't think that anyone he's bringing off the bench is as much of a threat as Jesus Sanchez is against a right-handed pitcher especially a potentially fatigued one that he's seen a couple times in the game Sanchez had some good contact earlier in the game as well right like he had
line drive up the middle that was kind of snagged by the middle infielder there and that was at 106 plus miles per hour that ended up going for an out his first hit that was a sacrifice fly you know it's not like he crushed that ball but to me it seemed like he was sort of on it there and it made sense that he was able to have success so if I'm calling guardians talk today I have some harsh words for my manager guards talk that sounds like that sounds like it rolls off the tongue
Better than Guardian talk. Too many syllables, Matt.
Too many syllables, yeah. You're right. I want to get to some more talk via the text line on the bullpen because there's some interesting texts I want to read you here, Nick. Okay, so first, Matt in Pickering for Blue Jays talk. I know Varlan is the firefighter and is needed in lots of situations.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the Red Sox's recent managerial changes?
because now Varlin has thrown 50 pitches over the last two days. Seems pretty likely he's down, although, like I said, now you don't know, right? And then James in River Bourgeois. Great game by the Jays. Got to keep winning series with you, Savage, on limited pitches on Tuesday and max struggling scheduled for Wednesday. Great to have Lauer as a long reliever for one of those games.
Would you piggyback Lauer after you, Savage? Save him for when a starter needs to be taken out really early. And then also, who's going down to make room for you, Savage? Mantiply, if so, will John try to get him in tomorrow to have him take work before going down? It will be interesting. Mantiply now, I mean, he didn't pitch today, and I don't think he pitched yesterday.
Or did he pitch yesterday? No, he didn't. So if that's the case, then I've got to imagine it. If he's not long for the roster, you might see him pitch tomorrow, especially if you had a pocket of batters you want him to get to. So I could see that for sure.
But yeah, I mean, now that you do have Lauer in the pen, even if he is like the quote-unquote long man, and you're kind of, again, using air quotes here, saving him for a potentially short Yosavage start or a potentially short Scherzer start, And, I mean, he threw, what, 79 pitches just a couple of days ago.
So, you know, I'm not sure what the process is for him if you're trying to keep him, like, in that in-between role of long man, you know, swing man, I suppose, and starter. Then I'm curious what it looks like for him. But, yeah, I'm curious what you think of the roles for guys like Lauer and Mantiply going forward as guys start to come back like with Trey Savage.
I think it's a good point that they might try and get Mantiply work before he could potentially be on the way out. Lauer, as you said, you have your Savage coming up who's limited. You have Scherzer who's coming up who is limited in a different way, you could argue. And when you think about, okay, who... and this bullpen is going down, who has options?
Well, it's Louis Varlin, Braden Fischer, Mason Fluharty, and Joe Mantapai. I don't think Varlin, Fischer, or Fluharty are going down. So that makes Mantapai by far the most obvious candidate. And in terms of the roles, It kind of depends on the player. Some guys are extremely routine oriented. Some guys are more flexible. This is part of being a manager.
Some of it's not just what is the most optimal way to deploy these players in a theoretical sense. It's knowing the guys you have, knowing what they need. One thing that is kind of nice about having a quote unquote closer by committee is that You can be more flexible. What's the right situation? Are the most difficult guys coming up in the eighth? Maybe I'm throwing Varland out there.
Who's my fireman? Well, maybe it's Tyler Rogers if the double play is in order because he's such a ground ball guy. But if there's a runner on second and third and zero one out, maybe it's not Rogers because he doesn't strike too many guys out. So that's more of a Fisher job.
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