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The Blue Jays really put a dent in my Victoria Day weekend

Nick Reid May 25, 2021

Did you watch the Toronto Blue Jays this Victoria Day weekend? If so, my condolences. I watched the Jays as much as anybody and I feel like they owe me a seven-day all-inclusive in Punta Cana after what they put me through. Getting swept in a four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays with every loss coming right down to an eventual bitter end was traumatizing. All of the scores were different, but I felt like I was watching reruns all weekend long. My mental health would have been far better off if I’d spent those 15 hours watching MTV’s Ridiculousness rather than the Jays sputter away every opportunity they had to win a game.

In the last edition of Nick’s Notes, I told you that the Blue Jays were one of the hottest teams in baseball, and boy what a 180 they’ve pulled since then. After going on a 7-1 streak in which they were one more win away from taking sole possession of the AL East, the Jays have lost six straight and are now 4th in the division.

Not only was each loss to the Rays absolutely demoralizing, snowballing game after game, but they were all winnable too. That’s what made them so gut-wrenching.

What was the biggest reason for the Jays’ terrible Victoria Day weekend? If you don’t know the answer then you must have not watched, which in that case I wish we could have traded places. But it was definitely the bullpen, by a long shot. In each of their last five games, the Blue Jays headed to the 8th inning with the lead or tied, only for the ‘pen to blow it. Every. Damn. Time. Two of those games were blown in the 9th, and two others were lost in extras. That’s a pretty frustrating way to be losing games, and you can tell it’s taking a toll on the players almost as much as it has on Blue Jays Twitter. It’s a bloodbath out there.

What worries me is that there’s no obvious solution to the Jays’ bullpen issues. They should look for some jobless veteran arms who can string together some good outings, or try their luck calling up reinforcements from Buffalo along with Alek Monah. But the lack of depth is concerning to say the least. And it’s not just one reliever who’s giving the rest of them a bad rep. Outside of Jordan Romano, I don’t trust any of these guys. Tyler Chatwood has been the team’s most dependable reliever, and a lot of people think he should have stayed in Sunday’s game and tried to pitch his way out of it, including Chatwood himself. But in an ideal situation, he wouldn’t be pitching past the 7th inning. That’s just unfortunately the reality for the Blue Jays since Julian Merryweather and Kirby Yates, who would have been an ideal 8th/9th inning combo, are sidelined for the rest of the season.

To be fair, it wasn’t all bad – though the bad parts were pretty damn bad). Hyun Jin Ryu and Robbie Ray continue to shove, and the bats had life with 27 runs over their last five. But none of that matters if the Jays can’t close these games out. Starting pitching and hitting is great, but you need every unit to do their job over the course of nine innings to win ballgames. There’s no time clock, and as much as we’d like to be able to dribble it out the truth is the Jays need their ‘pen to protect leads by getting batters out.

Vladdy Jr is the biggest reason why I didn’t try looking for tee times rather than suffer through these last couple of Ls. He had a pair of homers Monday including the one that tied it up in the 8th, giving us some false hope after the Jays found themselves down 5-0 before they even got a chance to swing the bat. His power and ability to hit balls no matter where they’re thrown looks unbelievable at times. He continues to impress the hell out of me with these bombs.

His game-tying blast yesterday afternoon went 461 feet and left the park at 117.4 mph, tied for the hardest-hit Blue Jays homer in the Statcast Era. He continues to amaze as he LEADS THE ENTIRE LEAGUE IN HOME RUNS and deserves serious MVP consideration for what he’s doing out there.

Let’s hope the Jays can bounce back and rattle some wins off against the New York Yankees this week. I’m begging you. I was supposed to enjoy my long weekend, but you ruined it. And I’m done with the Habs.

Nick Reid

Blue Jays Contributor for DeanBlundell.com. Sport Management student at Brock University. Have seen a game at all 30 Major League ballparks. Would rather be eating poutine at the Rogers Centre.

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