Oct. 2-4: Blue Jays vs. Rays Series Thread

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

What do you guys want? The ump to bend the rules for Buerhle?

Bend the rules? No.

Call a strike a strike, and don't call it ridiculously tight given the situation.

He's an ***hole. Plain and simple.

[flames_fan_down_under]

Tepera touched up right away. Would be nice to get this inning over with at some point.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Probably because I've been a fan for 35 years and I think throwing away an easier route to the Worlds Series is completing assanine. They may not make the playoffs for another 22 years, so it's not like this is something that guanranteed to happen again.

I honestly wouldn't care so much if it wasn't for the huge discrepancies in stats for the Jays at home versus the road. I care about that more than I do the opponent. That said, Texas is the team i least wanted to see them play.

I've been a fan for a long time too. I just don't think it matters as much as you do relative to making sure the team is rested. The circumstances were difficult in Baltimore and given field conditions I have no issues with them playing a Buffalo line-up for that matinee. None. Stay healthy.

Plus how often have the top two seeds made it to the ALCS since the wildcard was introduced. Honest question - I have no idea, but it seems like it doesn't happen much.

[ClubFlames]

Feel so bad for Buehrle.

[flames_fan_down_under]

That was an unfortunate series of events and really forced Gibbons' hand. Oh well though. Luckily baseball players have short memories and move on from this stuff pretty quickly.

[browna]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

What do you guys want? The ump to bend the rules for Buerhle?

How about checking at first when the catcher asks him to? Never seen that before and Martin getting into an animated argument.

There were three pitches where Rays players were ready to walk back to dugout but were called balls.

[TheAlpineOracle]

The only bad call I saw was the check swing. Some borderline stuff that appeared to be correct on pitch tracker.

[Jiggy_12]

Starting to look like this outcome will in fact not matter anyways. Royals are up 5-0 on the Twins who have zero to play for.

Texas or Houston will be our ALDS opponent. Both those games are close so no indication yet who it will be.

[TheAlpineOracle]

If LA was to somehow end up with the Wilcard, finishing
Behind KC may not be that bad.

[Jiggy_12]

Don't know who I'd rather face between Astros and Rangers, but leaning towards Rangers. The thought of facing Keuchel potentially twice in 5 games isn't very appealing, regardless of having Price being able to do the same.

[flames_fan_down_under]

I am happy with either Houston or Texas. I think the Jays will dominate.

[Jiggy_12]

If Houston wins today and Texas loses, I believe they will play tomorrow to determine the division winner (Loser would then play Yankees in the wildcard on Tues). Hamels is pitching today, and Keuchel pitched just two days ago, so likely neither ace would pitch in the play-off.

Hamels pitching today may also mean he wouldn't pitch against us until game 2, and then likely won't appear twice in the series. Unless he goes on short rest at least once.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

If Houston wins today and Texas loses, I believe they will play tomorrow to determine the division winner. Hamels is pitching today, and Keuchel pitched just two days ago, so likely neither ace would pitch in the play-off.

Hamels pitching today may also mean he wouldn't pitch against us until game 2, and then likely won't appear twice in the series. Unless he goes on short rest at least once.

Ideal scenario is for there to be a play-in game between Texas/Houston tomorrow and Texas wins, but has to use Gallardo. That pretty much guarantees the Rangers would have to give 2-3 starts to guys not named Hamels/Gallardo. And those guys are awful, awful pitchers.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

All hands are on deck and this squad is locked and loaded. Watch out whichever poor team draws the Jays. It could get ugly very very fast. Especially starting with Price.

Originally Posted by Antithesis

Geez, even without Travis, look at that lineup. Who cares which team the Jays are playing? It doesn't matter.

Originally Posted by alan21

There's too many vets and clutch performers all over this lineup for them to do poorly enough to lose a 5 or 7 game series. I'm not concerned until they run into the Cardinals in the World Series.

Is it a baseball thing to be this confident in a team heading into the playoffs? I get the not caring about the matchup part, but a lot of comments almost make it seem like it's pretty much a forgone conclusion we'll walk all over any team we play in the ALDS.

Maybe it's the hockey fan in me, but I'm worried no matter who we play and don't feel the level of confidence you guys do, especially considering it's only 5 games.

[Jiggy_12]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Is it a baseball thing to be this confident in a team heading into the playoffs? I get the not caring about the matchup part, but a lot of comments almost make it seem like it's pretty much a forgone conclusion we'll walk all over any team we play in the ALDS.

Maybe it's the hockey fan in me, but I'm worried no matter who we play and don't feel the level of confidence you guys do, especially considering it's only 5 games.

The 5 game series is the only thing that scares me. If Price is off his game in game 1, it could be hard to get back on track.

But if you take every 5 game segment the Jays have played since July 31st (trade deadline), on only 3 occasions did they lose 3 out of 5 games. And I'm talking every single 5 game segment, meaning each day starts and ends a separate 5 game block. That's 56 segments, and our record would be 53-3 given those parameters (if each block of games was considered a series)

1. Aug 14-19 (Before Stroman came back, Hutchison had one of the L's)
2. Sept 19-22 (2 of the losses were by 1 run, no Tulowitzki either)
3. Sept 30 - Oct 4 (during this streak of semi-meaningless games)

If you change the parameters to 7 game segments and try to find 4 losses, it only happened once and that was starting the 7 game segment in literally the first game played without Tulowitzki.. (Excluding after we lose today, but you can completely discount this blip due to the situation)

Jays fans have every reason in the world to be confident. We are absolute world series favorites. Baseball is a lot different from hockey in that luck plays only a very small factor.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Is it a baseball thing to be this confident in a team heading into the playoffs? I get the not caring about the matchup part, but a lot of comments almost make it seem like it's pretty much a forgone conclusion we'll walk all over any team we play in the ALDS.

Maybe it's the hockey fan in me, but I'm worried no matter who we play and don't feel the level of confidence you guys do, especially considering it's only 5 games.

No one is saying it's a foregone conclusion.

But the Jays are the best team in baseball. They are strong in every aspect throughout the lineup.

Worrying about the home field issue seems pretty trivial to me because:

1) getting ready to hit the playoffs healthy and ready is far more important,

2) as mentioned, the Jays square up well against every team, and

3) chances are game 7 in KC doesn't come into play anyway

I wouldn't say I'm 'worried' but yeah, anything can happen - especially in a short series.

So might as well relax and enjoy the ride. What else can we do? (other than worry)

[Dion]

Originally Posted by jayswin

Is it a baseball thing to be this confident in a team heading into the playoffs? I get the not caring about the matchup part, but a lot of comments almost make it seem like it's pretty much a forgone conclusion we'll walk all over any team we play in the ALDS.

Maybe it's the hockey fan in me, but I'm worried no matter who we play and don't feel the level of confidence you guys do, especially considering it's only 5 games.

I think the confidence thing has to do with the fact we have a lineup of players that match up well with any team in the playoffs.

[Machiavelli]

Taylor Swift curse!

[KootenayFlamesFan]

22 years out of the playoffs, I'll be nervous regardless who they play. Nice feeling to have agin though.

[Machiavelli]

double post...