Blue Jays, Red Sox are mirror images
The Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox treat Major League Baseball like a beer league softball outing. Let’s pound the hell out of the ball, and see which of us can get to 20 before they turn the lights out.
Both teams are short on pitching, but it doesn’t seem to matter in a division where offense is king. Hell, feel free to throw in the Baltimore Orioles, who also love to mash their way through 10-8 affairs on a nightly basis.
Going into Sunday, Toronto leads the wild American League East by a game over Boston and three over Baltimore. With more than a month to go before the end of the regular season, there are bound to be shifts. As of right now, though, all three would be in the playoffs.
When you think about the Red Sox and Blue Jays, consider who immediately comes to mind. The casual fan would rattle off Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Josh Donaldson, Troy Tulowitzki, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and David Price, probably in that order. It took until the ninth guy to finally hit on a pitcher. Price is also struggling this season, despite being one of the highest-paid hurlers in the game.
The Red Sox have already scored 700 runs. Nobody else in the junior circuit has even reached 640. Of course, Toronto is doing all it can to hold up the other end of the bargain, tied with the Cleveland Indians for second-most in the AL with 631.
Should these two teams meet in the playoffs, it would be one of the great offensive spectacles we have ever seen. It’s funny timing, considering how much the game has shaded toward pitching this decade. During the Steroid Era, this would have seemed appropriate. Now? It’s more like a white dress at a funeral.
Perhaps we should all be rooting for one of these two to reach the World Series. Why? Because can you imagine Toronto or Boston’s lineup going up against the starting staffs of the Washington Nationals, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs or San Francisco Giants? It would be amazing sport and theatre wrapped into one.
Whether or not the Red Sox and Blue Jays can actually get to the Fall Classic is another story. Should they make the playoffs, we have seen plenty of teams with great lineups go down early and easily because they simply could not pitch. Considering the rotations in Cleveland and Texas, it could go that way for these two East powers.
Yet, it might not, too. Toronto or Boston could go old school and mash all day and into the night. It would be fun, watching the bats heat up October.
Oh, the possibilities.
