Which neither does.

One of the guys with a 3-inning save this year last had a save in 2016.

While it's hard to argue with the result (and was hit off a fringe bullpen type in a 8-1 ballgame IIRC), in terms of process, Keys' 2nd dinger of the season was struck on a pitch he would normally have no business offering at.

Nobody had issues with Bichette fouling balls. Nobody should have issues with a hitter hitting homeruns on balls.

Bad ball hitters like Bichette or Vlad Sr. or Clement are the 1% of the 1% contact hitters who can consistently get away with things that even average MLB players simply can't.

If most breaking balls end up out of the zone, Keys should be working on recognizing them out of the hand & laying off them, not trying to golf pitches 4 inches below the zone over the RF wall like low-ball hitting freaks like Nathan Lukes & Jesus Sanchez regularly do.

If Keys is being coached to sit breaking ball, he should be trying to identify mistake pitches & hanging curves that MLB sluggers regularly punish. Not chasing pitcher's pitches in the dirt.

It was one swing though in a laugher of a game as a sub for the regulars.

I like the notion from one of the above posters that Keys might've been working on hitting backfoot breaking balls in a MLB blowout game.

But just because Keys can sometimes launch pitcher's pitches curveballs into the stratosphere doesn't mean it's a good ongoing plate discipline approach.

	Players	                     G	 PA   AB   R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB   SO  BAVG   OBP   SLG   OPS GDP HBP  sOPS+
																					
2000	Stewart 136, Cruz 25	   162	776  712  129  223  49  5  31   93  23  5  51  110  .313  .363  .527  .889  13  7    135
2001	Stewart 101, Cruz 53	   162	768  712  114  206  53  6  24   66  29 10  50  122  .289  .340  .482  .822   7  5    125
2021	Semien 88, Springer 56	   162	749  670  129  178  42  2  42   99  12  3  69  168  .266  .337  .522  .859  12  5    123
2006	Johnson 104, Rios 34	   162	763  682  118  208  47  4  21   87  13  5  57  119  .305  .374  .478  .852  12 20    123
2025	Bichette 82, Springer 39   162	761  699  111  203  42  1  30  100  11  4  51  121  .290  .344  .482  .826  13  7    118
2002	Stewart 124	           162	761  690  119  201  42  8  14   53  15  5  58   80  .291  .355  .436  .791  13 11    117

2020	Biggio 46	            60	284  238   41   61  18  0   9   33   7  0  39   67  .256  .367  .445  .813   3  4    116
1991	Whyte 156	           162	755  680  111  189  41 10  17   61  36 11  57  142  .278  .337  .443  .780   8  7    115
2003	Johnson 72, Stewart 71	   162	787  699  128  201  38  4  19   84   6  5  54   96  .288  .350  .435  .785  11 20    114
1986	Fernandez 102, Garcia 28   163	768  724   96  219  35  7  16   82  23 12  31   69  .302  .335  .436  .771   9  6    114
1987	Fernandez 115, Liriano 36  163	768  724   96  219  35  7  16   82  23 12  31   69  .302  .335  .436  .771   9  6    114

1999	Stewart 139	           162	781  697  118  216  37  3  11   74  40 16  68  104  .310  .377  .419  .796  11  9    111
2009	Scutaro 144	           162	782  666  120  186  38  2  18   76  14  5  97   94  .279  .372  .423  .795  12  6    110
1993	Whyte 103, Henderson 44	   162	766  663  140  175  37  5  18   55  51  7  90  115  .264  .358  .416  .774   3  8    110
2022	Springer 126	           162	758  680  106  175  29  4  27   92  15  2  59  133  .257  .322  .431  .753  12  8    110
1983	Garcia 89, Collins 54	   162	760  698  114  211  30 10   6   51  47 18  51   74  .302  .351  .400  .750   7  3    110

When you win, you only gain ground on the few teams that lost. When you lose, you lose ground on mostly everyone.

The only way to climb is to consistently win and make small gains on the field in aggregate. You can't simply rely on the team above you going cold or beating them in a head-to-head as you can when chasing a single team.

Of course, playing 6 weeks of .630 baseball cures a lot of problems.

It also helps that all the teams ahead of the Jays have played like the sub .500 mediocre ballclubs that they are over the same stretch. While a depleted Toronto somehow found it's 2015 & 2025 post-ASB form.

You would need a 10 games winning streak of your own to get back a few games behind them.

scottt's post puts my thoughts into words better than my own.

Playing since the trade deadline at a 100-win pace both fixed a lot of problems & was highly unlikely after the preceding 100+ game performance from the 2026 squad.

But even with the 2026 team's historic second half run, they are still barely occupying WC3 with 19 games left to go.

Playing at a 100-win pace wasn't itself sufficient to get back into the playoff picture.

Like scottt mentioned, it required the stars to similarly align where none of Cleveland, Texas, Baltimore, Minnesota, Seattle or Detroit even played >.500 baseball themselves to resemble comeptition as playoff contenders.

Picking 6 middling MLB clubs & relying on none of them to play above their true talent during any given month is a risky bet.

Seems to be a case of mistaken identity, Nigel.

The Joe Morgan whom passed away recently at 95 was a former MLB player but not with Cincinnati. He was apparently mostly known for coaching the Red Sox.

The more famous Joe Morgan, HOF 2B for the Reds & somewhat divisive broadcaster, passed away previously in 2020 at the age of 77.

I had to look it up myself, because 95 today seemed too old for the better known Morgan to have played for the Reds in the 70s.