“Hour of playoffs” is how Astros manager Dusty Baker described the rivalry between the two clubs before Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Blues, which gave them a 4-2 win in a row. . “(The Blue Jays) play this kind of ball all year round because of the division they have with the Yankees, Boston and the rest. Every game is like a playoff game. “There is a good chance someone has returned from here to play the baseball playoffs.” “They have a good team. They have a very good bathrobe. The question is whether they will stay healthy and what will happen in the coming months. “They have a very good team.” The same, of course, with the Astros, who have overturned much of the roster since the tricky 2017 World Series victory, but remain the dominant force in the American League West, even with the Los Angeles Angels far behind. This was what made Kevin Gausman’s last gem even more impressive, as the right ace drowned them in seven innings of the two-run ball with 10 hits, driving a fastball sitting at 95.2 mph and finishing at 98, and a splitter that created 14 floating hits. More impressive is the way he continues to command his repertoire. He has up to 132 consecutive batters without walking to start the season, while Yordan Alvarez in the second was just the sixth appearance on a plate against Gausman who reached the three balls this season. Alvarez finally hit a full-count splitter. Under normal circumstances, this should have resulted in a Blue Jays cakewalk, but not with Framber Valdez causing poor contact and having a finder in the right places when the Blue Jays made the ball high. He did not allow a shot until the sixth inning, when Bo Bichette stretched his arm for a weight a few inches out of the belt and passed it over the wall of the right court for a two-shot that opened the 2-1 lead. Interestingly, Bichette’s move was almost identical to that of Chas McCormick hitting the top of the inning, while his ball hit the top of the fence for a three-pointer that was eventually redeemed by a base shot by Aledmys Diaz. Both balls were hit by fastballs at a shooting angle of 33 degrees, Bichette by the bat at 97.3 mph, McCormick at 97.2, leading to an extra four-foot distance of 343 feet. The margin mattered even when Astros equalized at the top of the seventh, when Kyle Tucker hit a ball on the third line to beat the shift, stole second and scored when Nico Goodrum secretly gave Bisset and Santiago a thumbs up. Espinal. in the middle. The Blue Jays regained the lead in the final half when Espinal greeted the relief Phil Maton with a single-drive single scored by Matt Chapman. Feeding the rally was a mistake by Jeremy Pena who put the runners in first and second place and ended Valdez’s trip. All this created a great drama when Jordan Romano, playing for the 13th time in 23 games, allowed a double to Kyle Tucker and then, on the 10th court to bite Alex Bregman, left a boat at 97.1 miles / hour. that George Springer chased from the wall of the right court for the second exit, winning the applause from a crowd of 31,802. Romano then hit Pena, who ousted him last Sunday in Houston, for his third save against the Astros and his 11th season.
