Flight Deck

Coom, Tyler, and BK sat down and each came up with our own 'three up, three down' from this year as a way to look back on all of the good, bad, and everything in between from the 2021 Blue Jays season. 

We talked about the good stuff, like Vladdy's breakout season, the value of Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray's one-year contracts, Alek Manoah becoming The Big Man out of the blue, the home run jacket being insanely cool, and the amazing homecoming to Toronto in July. We also talked about the bad stuff, like the chaos that was the early-season bullpen, the ugly losses that ultimately cost the Blue Jays a playoff spot, Hyun Jin Ryu's struggles, George Springer's injuries, and the current MLB schedule and post-season format.

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It's all over.

The Blue Jays did what they could this weekend, pulling off a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles in front of a wildly enthusiastic crowd. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, as both the Yankees and Red Sox won their games on Sunday and punched their respective tickets to the American League Wild Card game.

Here we are now, left to think about all that could have been. We took a look back at the final series of the year and talked about all of the great things we saw from the bats and the starting pitchers against the Trash Birds and then we ranted about the Expos, new and old, being totally useless. We also looked ahead to the off-season and talked about the major storylines we'll be talking about over the next few months. 

We realized at the end of the show that this whole process of talking about how special the 2021 Blue Jays were was not very therapeutic at all and it ultimately just made us more frustrated and heartbroken that the season is over.

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That wasn't the storybook finish we were hoping for. The Yankees rolled into Toronto for what was a playoff-like series at The Dome. Capacity was upped to 30,000 and the Blue Jays had a chance to catch the Yankees in the standings and ultimately put themselves in a position to earn a playoff spot. The table was set.

Unfortunately, it was the Yankees who showed up to play while the Blue Jays didn't bring their best. The bats were silenced in the first game on Tuesday, Bo Bichette led the team to a win on Wednesday, and then, with a chance to pull within one game of New York on Thursday, Robbie Ray got lit up in the sixth inning and Toronto's bats couldn't solve the Yankees' bullpen the rest of the way. It was a heartbreaker, a gut-punch, and an energy-sucking loss. 

We talked about a bunch of stuff on this episode of BJN Radio, including Bo's amazing series, Nate Pearson having some good outings out of the 'pen, and the decision by Charlie Montoyo to keep Ray in the game when it looked like the Yankees had him solved. We also looked ahead to the final series with Baltimore and what it'll take for Toronto to leap over the Red Sox and the Mariners.

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This weekend didn't go as planned. The Blue Jays managed a split against the Minnesota Twins while the Yankees rolled into Boston and pulled off a sweep. Toronto is now a game behind Boston for the second wild-card spot while the Yankees are a game up on the Red Sox for the top seed. 

We talked about the series, going through the downs, such as Lourdes Gurriel's injury and the team's lack of clutch hitting, and then the ups, like Alek Manoah's huge start on Sunday and George Springer busting out of his slump upon his return to the outfield.  We also looked ahead to the final week of the season, which will feature a must-win series between the Blue Jays and Yankees in Toronto.

This is the first time the Yankees will be in Toronto in two years and the Blue Jays are opening capacity to 30,000 fans. There's a perfect opportunity for a storybook ending here.

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We are back with another episode of BJN Radio to recap the Blue Jays tough three-game series at Tropicana Field. Things did not go well. A questionable, if not terrible, strike zone cost them in game one and while they were able to squeak out a win in game two thanks to a gutsy performance from 'The Big Man' Alek Manoah, they couldn't get the win in the rubber match.

Ross Stripling was terrible, there was drama surrounding Kevin Keirmaier and a dropped piece of paper, and it was just all around a bad time at The Trop, which it usually is.

Cam & Tyler recapped the series, look at the wild card standings, and got set for a massive four-game series against the Twins today on the pod.

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Another series, another couple of wins for the Blue Jays! That's the way it's been for the past month-and-a-bit and the hope is that it continues as the Blue Jays head to The House of Horrors. 

The Blue Jays got the job done this weekend, taking two of three from the lowly Minnesota Twins. Things started off ugly as Hyun Jin Ryu got knocked around on Friday but Steven Matz and Jose Berrios led the team to back-to-back wins on Saturday and Sunday, so all ended well. 

We talked about Ryu's struggles, the "injury" that landed him on the 10-day Injured List, and what to expect from him moving forward. We also talked about Matz's excellent run and what it means for him in the off-season.

Finally, we talked about the Blue Jays lineup and why it needs to involve Alejandro Kirk more often than not. We then took a look at the out-of-town scoreboard and gave a hat tip to Cleveland, who did us a solid by beating the Yankees on Saturday and Sunday.

We finished off by talking about the series ahead against the Rays at The Trop, a place that's never fun to visit.

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The good times keep rolling!

After sweeping Oakland and New York and then scoring 1000 runs over Baltimore in a four-game set, the Blue Jays returned home to face a big test — the American League-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

And it went really well, as the Blue Jays took two of three in the series, including a commanding win on Monday night. I was joined by our good pal BK to take about the series, which featured amazingly good starting pitching, the slaying of the Ryan Yarborough Dragon, and some positive vibes when it came to George Springer's health. 

We also dove into some Charlie Discourse, as Montoyo made a puzzling decision on Tuesday night late in the game that pissed a lot of people off. Is Charlie Montoyo the guy who's going to lead this team to glory? I mean, he's got a good chance of winning Manager of the Year, right? 

Finally, we looked ahead to the upcoming series against the Minnesota Twins!

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That was certainly a trip.

Things looked really ugly on Friday when the lowly Baltimore Trash Birds ended the Blue Jays' eight-game winning streak despite Robbie Ray being on the mound, but, after that, things got very, very good. The Blue Jays pulled off back-to-back last-second comeback wins in their doubleheader on Saturday, with George Springer and Bo Bichette hitting clutch homers to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And then, finally, on Sunday, the bats popped off for 22 runs, coming very close to setting a franchise record.

We talked about this whole wild weekend, ranging from the few ugly starts that Toronto's pitchers had, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde spazzing out at Robbie Ray, the speculation about sign stealing, all the way to the wild records that Toronto set this weekend.

Finally, we took a look ahead at the upcoming series against Tampa Bay and we looked at what Boston and New York have on tap.

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They did it! The Jays swept away the New York Yankees in convincing fashion and they now sit just outside of a Wild Card. It's the first time since 2015 that the Blue Jays have won eight games in a row and really, it feels a lot like 2015 right now. Everything is breaking their way. They're getting clutch starts, huge outings from different relievers, and cutch at-bats from stars and from depth players. Nothing is going wrong right now.

Cam was joined by Yankees writer Neil Keefe on the pod as well to recap the series and get a Yankees fans perspective on how the last week has gone.

There are now just 23 games left in the season and if the Jays win the games in hand that they have, they'll be tied with both the Yankees and Red Sox. They essentially control their own fate in this playoff race. 

Up next for the Jays is a four-game set against the Baltimore Orioles, who are 45-94 so far this season. These are very winnable games.

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Happy long weekend Blue Jays fans and welcome to a brand new episode of BJN Radio with Tyler and Cam! Today on the pod, the guys broke down the incredible weekend of baseball that we saw from the team as they swept away the Oakland A's in thrilling fashion. They talked about the explosion of offense, the dominating start from Robbie Ray, and the fact that the team is right back in the thick of the AL Wild Card Race.

They also hit on the report from Ken Rosenthal regarding potential new deals for Ray and Marcus Semien before getting set for a HUGE four-game series in the Bronx.

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