Flight Deck

The boys are back with another episode of Blue Jays Nation Radio! Today on the pod they jumped right into '3 Up, 3 Down' presented by Twig & Barry's BUT since it was Cam's 28th birthday, he made the decision to not do any "downs" and just run with six "ups". They talked about some strong performances from Ryu, Ray, Biggio, Hernandez, and others before getting into another impressive AAA appearance from Alek Manoah! The bats are rolling and the team is getting nothing but solid outings from pretty much everyone in the bullpen as well. They wrapped up this week's episode by taking a quick look ahead at the upcoming three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies!

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After earning a split in Oakland, the Blue Jays rolled into Houston and dropped two of three against the Astros.

The series started with an ugly outing from Ross Stripling and then concluded with a frustrating outing from Nate Pearson in his 2021 Blue Jays debut. We talked on this week's podcast about Big Nate's struggles with command and whether it's best for him to go down to Triple-A to work them out or whether the team should let him try to sort it by facing big-league competition. 

We also talked about the state of the Blue Jays' decimated bullpen, Cavan Biggio launching a homer in front of his parents, Rowdy Tellez coming back up and doing well at the plate, Danny Jansen regressing to the mean now that Alejandro Kirk is out long-term. Finally, we looked ahead to the series in Atlanta with the Braves.

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There was a lot to talk about after the Blue Jays' four-game set out west in Oakland.  We recapped the good from the A's series, including Robbie Ray again not walking anyone and Marcus Semien popping off in his return home, and we talked about the bad, including the injury bug that won't leave the Blue Jays alone and Steven Matz's second consecutive rough start. 

We also went into a bit of a rant about the puzzling George Springer injury saga. After being told Springer wasn't playing simply because he needed some rest, the $150 million man is back on the Injured List. Who would have guessed! Why the Blue Jays are being so coy about this whole thing is a mystery and it's incredibly frustrating. 

After that, we talked about the Angels releasing Albert Pujols and how funny it would be if he inexplicably finished off his career as a Blue Jay in Buffalo. Finally, we wrapped things up by talking about Alek Manoah's amazing Triple-A debut and how he could factor into the team's plans when the trade deadline comes around.

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Bring out the brooms, boys!

For the first time in 2021, the Blue Jays have swept a series, and it came against an impressive opponent in Alex Anthopolous' Atlanta Braves. Party like it's 1992!

We welcomed our good pal BK on this post-series episode and talked about how the lineup is finally firing on all cylinders with George Springer and Teoscar Hernandez back in the mix and whether or not this could be the start of a major run. We also talked about the most recent glut of injuries the team is facing, as Alejandro Kirk, Anthony Castro, and Tommy Milone went on the Injured List, while Springer is dealing with some kind of mysterious "fatigue" issue.

Finally, we looked ahead to the four-game series coming up in Oakland, went up and down Toronto's minor-league affiliates and talked interesting things to watch from them this season, and then went off on a random discussion about baseball in Vancouver and which time zone is the best for sports.

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That was certainly not how any of us expected that series to shake out. I mean, I think expecting to split a two-game series with the Nationals was reasonable given the fact three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer was on the mound, but kicking the piss out of Scherzer and then losing to *checks notes* Erick Fedde certainly wasn't where I would have put my money. Anyways! a 1-1 split!

The first game was a blast as Vladdy put together a historic three-homer, seven RBI game. After that, George Springer finally got activated from the Injured List and the bats went totally limp. Weird, weird stuff! We talked on this episode of Blue Jays Nation Radio about a bunch of stuff from this mini-series, including Vlad, Springer, Hyun Jin Ryu going on the IL, Rowdy Tellez going to the Alternate Site, what to expect from the upcoming series with Atlanta, and where some of the organization's key prospects are headed next week.

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Good times at The Trop? What world is this?!?!

The Blue Jays rolled into Tampa Bay and saw the Rays for the first time since getting swept away in the Wild-Card round of last year's post-season and things went quite well. Steven Matz was excellent on Friday, Jordan Romano imploded in Game 2, and the bullpen put together a masterful performance in Game 3 for the Blue Jays to take two of three. 

We talked about all of the things that were good, like the bullpen, Robbie Ray not walking anyone, and Santiago Espinal's presence on the field and in the lineup, and also touched on the things that weren't so good, like Bo and Vlad going 1-for-25, Hyun Jin Ryu suffering an injury, Romano's worrying outing. 

We also welcomed Mat Germain from Rays The Roof on the show to talk about what to expect from the Rays for the rest of the season. He went into some detail for us about some exciting arms the Rays have on the way and when we can expect to see Wander Franco, baseball's No. 1 prospect, make his debut. Germain also said that he's predicted the Blue Jays will finish second in the AL East this year, behind the Rays and ahead of the Yankees.

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The Blue Jays rolled into Fenway and earned a split in their mini, two-game series with the Red Sox this week. All things considered, given Toronto's wealth of injuries and how well the Red Sox had been playing early on, earning a split here is a pretty good outcome.

The Blue Jays limited the Red Hot Sox bats to just eight runs over the two games, impressive given Boston came into the series with the best offence in baseball. We talked on this post-series podcast about the team's unlikely hero, the bullpen, the one-two punch of Bo and Vlad absolutely mashing, the team's challenges with defence, particularly Lourdes Gurriel and Cavan Biggio, and what the lineup should look like when George Springer and Teoscar Hernandez return. 

We also looked ahead to the looming three-game series at The House of Horrors with the Rays. Tampa is also dealing with a wealth of pitching injuries but they're starting to find their stride offensively. This is a big series for the Blue Jays but they have their best three arms, Hyun Jin Ryu, Steven Matz, and Robbie Ray going.

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The Blue Jays rolled into Kauffman Stadium, a place of shadows, darkness, and sadness, and had their momentum squashed. After completing an exciting series win over the New York Yankees that was capped by a Bo Bichette walk-off dinger, the Blue Jays had themselves an opportunity to start climbing up the American League East ladder with a four-game set against the thoroughly mediocre Royals.

That didn't happen as the team dropped three of four. We talked about the downs from the series, of which there were multiple, such as the stagnant offence, Randal Grichuk's suddenly stone-cold bat, and Charlie Montoyo's puzzling bullpen management. But we also managed to find some positives, such as Steven Matz' killing it, Vlad Jr. arriving, and what appears to be the impending return/debut of George Springer. 

We also took a look ahead to the upcoming two-game set with the Red Sox at Fenway. Boston has been weirdly good this year. Is it a mirage? Or should we be worried about some weird, 2013-level stuff from them?

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Boy oh boy, does that feel good! After a difficult week, which featured back-to-back series losses, an injury-riddled Blue Jays squad hosted the New York Yankees and, yet again, came out with two of three wins. Gerrit Cole was excellent in the opener, the bats woke up in the second game behind an amazing start from Hyun Jin Ryu, and then Bo Bichette powered the team to a win in the third game on Wednesday afternoon with a walk-off bomb. 

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What a strange week that was! After taking two-of-three from the Yankees to kick off the season, the Blue Jays rolled into Texas and we all just assumed they would plow through the Rangers, as the history of that rivalry would suggest. That didn't happen. After that, the Blue Jays went "home" to host the Angels in Dunedin and dropped the first two games of the series to extend their losing streak to four games. Thankfully, the Blue Jays ended the weekend on a positive note with a 15-run Saturday and a well-timed rain-out on Sunday that saved us from having to watch Tanner Roark pitch to Mike Trout. We welcomed Brendon Kuhn, everybody's favourite out-of-the-blue news-breaker, to the podcast to go over the week that was, touching on the lows, such as Bo Bichette's struggles at short and the team's ugly strikeout numbers, and reaching for the highs, such as Steven Matz' hot start and Robbie Ray's return bumping Tanner Roark to the bullpen.  We finished off by looking ahead at this week's series against the New York Yankees, which will put two teams who haven't exactly lived up to expectations thus far head-to-head.

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