On the weekend I had myself a little Blue Jays home stand with a 4 game streak at the Rogers Centre.
Friday, game 1, Trish and I had a date night in section 209 vs. the Orioles with rookie Sean Nolin making his big league debut. It wasn’t a solid game for the home team though… the O’s put up 10 runs and the Blue Jays only managed 6. And the worst part might have been that it felt like there were a lot of chances for the Jays to get back into the game and make it close… but they didn’t get it done.
Note II: Tim Micallef of the Tim and Sid radio/TV program threw out the ceremonial first pitch after talking about it all week on the show. To his credit, Timmy did throw from the mound and he got it to the plate, but it was high and wide for a ball.
Saturday, game 2, was a chilly afternoon in the 500 level with my friend Brian who is a great dude and my most frequent baseball companion. The Jays dropped the decision 6-5 vs. the Orioles again – and again it felt like all day I kept saying, 1 big swing and we can do this. But that big “clutch” hit never came and we were on the losing end of the thing. It’s happened too many times early this season in Toronto…
Note: Japanese shortstop Munenori Kawasaki was seen on the JumboTron before the game singing along with to Oh Canada and it was awesome to see. This dude is endearing himself to the city of Toronto. More on him coming up.
Sunday, game 3, was another afternoon in section 536. This time my MoBro, Sean came down to Rogers Centre to catch the game with me and we were not disappointed. The entire game had a feel like Friday and Saturday… we were 1 big hit away from taking over and getting a win. But early in the game and through the middle innings we couldn’t get it done with the Orioles taking a lead and holding it. And then in the late innings it felt worse and worse with the bases loaded in the 7th inning and the 8th inning but couldn’t get more than the 1 run Kawasaki drove in with a line drive that just got over the glove of the 2nd baseman.
And then the 9th inning happened! Down 5-2 entering the bottom of the 9th, the Blue Jays were looking for a miracle… big hits that hadn’t come in the previous 2 games. But on this day the boys in blue finally got it rolling, scoring once and then twice and then 3 times to make the game 5-4. That’s when SS Munenori Kawasaki came to the plate again looking to keep it going. With runners on 1st and 3rd Kawasaki dug into the batter’s box and the unlikely happened. He hit a live drive shot into the right center field gap and 38 year old Mark DeRosa ran his hear out from 1st all the way to plate, sliding across to win the game.
I said it to Brian in a text after the game, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dude happier on a baseball field than Munenori Kawasaki after he hit that ball and Mark DeRosa crossed the plate to win the game. It was awesome!
Monday, game 4, I once again ventured to section 536. This time Rayanne came with me as we watched a rematch of the 1992 World Series with the Atlanta Braves in town. From the start things looked good with 4 runs in the first 3 innings for the good guys. Mark Buehrle pitched well, the hitters hit and the fans cheered. It was a good win, less stress and a 9-3 final score!
If you weren’t aware, Rayanne is a big Colby Rasmus fan. And in the 7th inning we got to see some history as Colby came to the plate to take on his younger brother (Atlanta pitcher) Cory for the first time in big leagues. Rayanne even caught Colby’s walk to the plate on Vine. Check it out here!
Note: Cool to run into my brother Chris and his fiancé Mal before the start of the game.
In the end my 4 games ended up having a 2 win and 2 loss record and moved me to a 7 win and 5 loss record in my 12 games attended so far in the 2013 season.
It’s been a challenging season so far for the team and the fans, but it’s still a great time at the ballpark.
Get yourself some tickets (they aren’t that expensive) and head on down to watch the boys of summer in action.
It’s worth the trip to Blue Jay Way.
