Battle of the Birds - Orioles (69-77) at Blue Jays (84-62) - Sept 12-14

[Parataxis]

After taking care of business against the Astros, the Jays try to keep it rolling when Baltimore comes to town. With a 3+ game lead over either of their nearest competitors for the bye, and the clock running down on the season, all the Jays need to do it play good ball to bring them to a clubhouse party.

This season though, while the Jays have largely dominated against playoff-bound teams, they've too often sunk to the level of their competition when scrapping with the bottom-feeder teams. Can they pull it together and send Baltimore home packing?

Gosh, I hope so.

**********************
Probable Pitchers
**********************

Fri Sept 12, 7:07 PM

Trevor Rogers (8-2, 1.51 ERA, 87 SO)


vs

Chris Bassitt (11-8, 3.97 ERA, 157 SO)


***

Sat Sept 13, 3:07 PM

Tomoyuki Sugano (10-8, 4.51 ERA, 96 SO)


vs

Max Scherzer (5-3, 4.36 ERA, 70 SO)


***

Sun Sept 14, 1:37 PM

TBD


vs

Shane Bieber (2-1, 4.30 ERA, 25 SO)


************************************

DISCUSS!

[bluerap23]

Baltimore is coming in hot. Need 2 of 3.

[SharoneWright]

Davis needs to in the lineup against Rogers.

[Raps in 4]

We're lucky if we win 1. They have our number.

[JN]

We're lucky if we win 1. They have our number.

Maybe you and Randle, who have fear mongered and wrongfully predicted all the worst scenarios over for the past number of weeks will finally get one right.

Weren't we supposed to have fell to 3rd place .... last weekend?

[JN]

Rogers has been one of the 3 best starting pitchers in MLB in the second half.
Baltimore is better than their 69-77 record, which is weighted down by their bad start.

We can certainly find a way to win 2 games here, but its certainly not a guarantee. We are winning at least one. That is what this team does it finds ways to win and finds way to avoid losing streaks.

[JN]

Davis needs to in the lineup against Rogers.

He's a lefty - I don't think we need to worry about that Schneider not starting tonight.

The real question will be the next two games (righty Sugano and TBD, which might be a pen game). No reasons he doesn't play at least one of those games but not counting on it.

[Raps in 4]

We're lucky if we win 1. They have our number.

Maybe you and Randle, who have fear mongered and wrongfully predicted all the worst scenarios over for the past number of weeks will finally get one right.

Weren't we supposed to have fell to 3rd place .... last weekend?

Hey now, I am a beacon of positivity compared to Randle.

We were about to drop to third when the Stankees and Red Sux choked. It's what they do. I gave them too much credit. I'm only right most of the time. Not all the time.

[Tripod]

Getting 2 runs if gonna be tough tonight.

Need a great game from Bassitt

[xAIRNESSx]

On top of it being an egregious strike 3 call on Davis, it was also a very delayed punchout by the ump. smh

[Randle McMurphy]

Gimenez move doesn’t bode well for any Bichette return

[Randle McMurphy]

This umpire is just generally atrocious, cool

[Boogie!]

Dude how are we gonna score and use our game plan with this horrible strike zone. They have to swing at everything

[Boogie!]

This guy is suddenly squeezing the zone **** this ****

[Randle McMurphy]

That should do it for this one with Rogers on the mound, this team owns us

[Randle McMurphy]

We are pretty fortunate not to have to play the Orioles or Rays in the WC series this year, we’d never win a game

[WaltFrazier]

Bad timing for Kirk's bat to go cold. Wonder if Buck was right earlier, he's tired from catching the most games in his career

Not a terrible at bat though but disappointing

[pingpongrac]

Kirk is scuffling big time the past week. Just our luck that he has come up to the plate numerous times with 2-3 runners on too.

[JN]

Gimenez move doesn’t bode well for any Bichette return

i can only see 2 logical reasons for the move:
1) Bichette is out for a longer term than expected, or
2) It does give more flexibility on lineups with Davis Schneider playing at 2B.

It wasn't doing nothing and its hard to believe moves to get Davis more PT until I actually see it.

[Randle McMurphy]

Gimenez move doesn’t bode well for any Bichette return

i can only see 2 logical reasons for the move:
1) Bichette is out for a longer term than expected, or
2) It does give more flexibility on lineups with Davis Schneider playing at 2B.

It wasn't doing nothing and it’s hard to believe moves to get Davis more PT until I actually see it.

I haven’t thought Bichette was coming back since he was put on the IL (and likely not at SS even if did return), but playing Davis more is a good basis for doing so too.

Gimenez is also likely to be their starting SS next year too but I don’t think that plays into it at this stage.