Over/under on the Blue Jays scoring more than 10 runs this series (3.3 runs per game)?

I'll take the over, happily. Team is too talented to play this poorly offensively for much longer.

Feels both fortunate and also unfortunate to have this level of talent and historical performance to have this record. Better times ahead.

I'm paying attention every night. And the Leafs will be in the Cup vs. the Oilers. There, I said it. Sorry Leafs fans.

Seattle has been one of the best teams in the league. I could easily see a sweep, even though I hope for a turnaround with both pitching and hitting.

Odds are we score more than 10, but the Seattle batter's eye is apparently weird, it's the most extreme pitcher's park in MLB. Could be the right time for SomeGuy to get a chance.

"The manager’s role, to me, is line-up card, substitutions, overseeing the coaches, and some clubhouse management. So, yes I think the overwhelming majority of complaints belong solely with the players."

I guess it I would reach same conclusion if I thought that's what the role was. I see the role more active, like the pitching coach of the Angels who came out and told Soriano to stop throwing his fastball.

Crazy how few Jays fans are in Seattle tonight. A fraction of what would be the norm in years past.

This might be the best offensive infield the Jays can field, it will be interesting to see it over the next week or so.

People just don't want to go to the States right now for obvious reasons. "I wanted to see the Jays play and ended up in an El Salvadoran prison" isn't appealing. Loving the runs! Lukes on fire.

Oh I understand the reticence. This is the first series in Seattle in the past 20 years where I haven’t attended at least one game. The Saturday and Sunday games of these series have typically been sellouts. It will be interesting to see the numbers tomorrow night.

WTF Yimi

Why the Jays think Garcia is their second best high leverage reliever escapes me. The evidence of Garcia being good in that role is pretty limited.

Better to be lucky than good!

I have no idea what he was doing for those first 3 batters. It’s like he needed the First 15 pitches to get warmed up. Ugly start, terrific finish

Looked like his arm was more lively than he's used to. Hitting 99 on the gun, pitches moving all over the place. Took him a while to dial it in.

You know things are bad when Tourism Seattle advertises that hotels and restaurants are taking CDN currency at par this weekend.

Nigel, it's an interesting one. Garcia's first two years in Toronto he was considered solid but inconsistent, not a guy you rely on in leverage. The perspective on him changed last year; he was giving up more home runs, but generally at inconsequential times.

I don't really think the Jays have a traditional setup man, but a rotation of guys who could fill in that role when needed, which is completely fine. Few bullpens have two super dominant back-end relievers. In a perfect world, Green is that setup man, but he just isn't the pitcher he was before the injury.

The A’s took down the Yankees 11-7. Good to see. Aaron Judge hit two more home runs and now has 14 on the season. That is more than half of the total home runs hit by the Blue Jays this year.

Phenomenal base running by Springer and Clement in the 8th. Just a well played game by the Jays tonight.

I was very wrong about Fluharty. So many funky swings against his stuff.

Managing scared = using your best reliever for the 4th time in 5 days up 3 runs in the 9th.

I'd rather err to the side of over pitching the good pitchers in games we are winning than either under pitching them and losing and/or using them in games we are losing.

But yeah, I think a fair amount of up by 3 in the 9th gets improper usage due to the save rule, if you only got a save for up be 2 in the top of the ninth, I think you'd see far less closers be brought in up by 3 with one inning to go.

Bringing in Hoffman was silly between being up 3 runs and Green only pitching twice the past week, but glad we're almost back to .500.

Hoffman absolutely should have not have pitched. Rodriguez or Green could have handled a three run lead in 9th. Very good game though and Jays have scored 6 runs in 3 straight games! Bo being a 110 WRC+ kind of guy VS a 95 one would be huge. Barger has plenty of flaws in his game but it's nice to have someone other than Vlad who hits the ball hard. Roden back up in a couple of weeks and hitting would help a lot too. Fantastic game by Straw who had incredible catch and key hit. Seattle was on fire before this series too so looks good for Jays. Only 3 games out of first despite tons of problems.

I suspect it was a "get a win while we can" situation with Sunday being a pen game with Urena starting. We got lucky last time with him but guys no one wanted are rarely going to give you 2 good starts in a row. Today will see everyone but the 2 we saw yesterday used, so I suspect Hoffman was a debate between using him to close out Saturday or be wasted in loss today.

I do have to give Schneider credit for developing Fluharty. He went to him early and often this season and obviously helped build confidence in him to the point where he’s been so aggressive/effective in the bullpen in the early going this year. Key development as it has helped the bullpen (which has already been so much better than last year) from cratering.

Didn't Schneider debut Fluharty in a close game against Pete Alonso and Juan Soto? I am just not a fan of Schneider's management style and don't see him being much different than Montoyo. You could put Casey Candael, Derek Shelton or Buck Martinez in the role and I wouldn't expect much variance between them. Are they that bad? No but they don't elevate the impact of the manager and a team with a budget as high as this should have a manager who can move the needle day to day.

Oh I agree, dalimon. As someone put it the other day, we'd need a prime Francona or even a John Gibbons to manage an excellent bullpen and utilize platoons effectively (Freed Jatalanotto). Schneider isn't there...yet. But as I put, he does deserve credit for Fluharty. Gibby seemed to have a couple of Fluharty's each year he managed, whether the team was good bad or so-so.

I was definitely not a fan of Montoyo by the end but it is also true that Bichette and Guerrero Jr. (and Biggio for that matter) both had their best years with him as the skipper. One of Schneider
's strong points in being the next in line was he experiences with those three.

If you look back at even June 2015, when it was lowest of the low of the AA era, similar to 2025 and you read these message boards, you see almost no critcism of Gibbons. It was almost all on the players.

I mostly watch the replay, and the SportsNet replay cuts off after the top of the 9th. I watched the "condensed game" just to be sure we won, was surprised to see Hoffman, but I get the logic.

What frustrated me a bit was that the "condensed game" was 8:33 long and 6:57 or so was the first 4-5 innings where Seattle was up 3-0. They showed multiple replays of Seattle scoring runs, etc - and didn't even show the Jays scoring the 3rd run, for example. The entire 6 runs we score were basically 60-70 seconds, after 400+ of Seattle getting a lead. Maybe just because it was the late game, and the condensed game guys were getting tired? Feels a little biased.

No varsho or Santander so lineup which is already weak is really thin (Barger hitting 3rd!). Hopefully, after the day off, everyone is healthy and ready to go.

Sounds like this Lauer kid might be ok.

What a great series for Barger!

As I said when Gimenez first was Iinjured, it let the Jays field probably their best offensive infield. Given how badly the lineup was struggling at the time, the injury was a double edged sword. A good weekend for a lot of players which is refreshing.

Good heavens, did the Jays actually go 4-2 on a west coast trip? I'm sure they've had similarly successful trips in the past, but I always associate west coast trips with losing streaks.

Best baseball the Jays have been playing all year. Having Barger be productive and Lukes Hit is huge and Kirk and Bo both significantly better. Really a roller coaster ride with this team and it's not even mid May. Hopefully Kirk is OK and happy bullpen will actually get rested.

Great call by gabrielsyme on Barger looking good in the early going despite poor superficial stats. Good contribution to the site.

Hopefully, Lukes will continue to get near everyday playing time vs RHP. He might not be flashy, but he's a solid, well rounded player. That's currently a career .816 OPS vs RHP, with 20 BB to 22 K.

Bye, Bye Steward Berroa, traded to the Dodgers for cash.

The first of what will surely be many outfielders getting traded. Good luck to him.

Thanks greenfrog, on saving me the awkwardness of tooting my own horn!

What would this team look like if it turns things around and gets to the playoffs? I think it would a be as a great offensive team with a just-good-enough starting rotation and a strong bullpen. I think the strong bullpen is easy enough to see - even with some recent meltdowns, Hoffman and Garcia have been good, and Little and Fluharty have been surprisingly excellent. And by this point, it's hard to see the starting rotation turning into a strength.

It's the offense that really could get into gear. Let's put on some rose-coloured glasses : Springer looks like he's back to a productive hitter; Kirk is showing definite signs of life; Barger is in the early phases of what could be a major breakout; and Lukes is surprisingly solid at the plate. Bo, Vlad and Gimenez have significantly undershot their expected stats, and no starter has significantly overperformed. Add it all up, and I think there's the makings of an excellent offense here.

Odd for Berroa to go to the Dodgers on the surface they are a killer team, what do they need with a Toronto cast off? Then I looked closer - they have 2 IF/OF'ers on the bench plus a catcher and a pure infielder. The 2 are Enrique Hernández (5 innings in the OF this year, a few thousand lifetime though mostly CF/LF but at 33 I figure he is stretched in CF) and Chris Taylor (62 innings in the OF this year, mostly LF). So a backup who can play solid defense in CF is a good idea for this club - at least in AAA to be ready in case James Outman (27 wRC+ this year, 54 last year) has to be dumped.

As I've said before, Berroa is exactly the type of player a good, playoff-caliber team wants on their bench/in AAA. Smart move by LAD... Toronto had a better option to cut (Schneider).

The Dodgers have some strange 40-man construction at present.

They have 32 pitchers rostered, with 10 on the 60-day IL. So 22 spots currently being occupied.

I saw one of their fans mention that prior to acquiring Berroa, they old had two position players on the 40-man that weren't either on the IL or on the MLB roster.

So while they do have quite a few OF options on their 26-man, their 40-man overall lacks flexibility.