Blue Jays wake, 2025

No shame.

No shame in taking the world champions to extra innings of game seven. All but the most rabid Dodger partisans agree the Jays outplayed them and deserved the win. In the end, experience won out over upstart talent, but my God. The Jays had the winning run 90 feet away. Twice. 

You saw that upstart talent every game and it's all there in print: first World Series pinch hit grand slam (Addison Barger); finest rookie pitching performance in postseason history (Trey Yesavage); most hits in a postseason (Ernie Clement, 30); the first time anyone has ever homered off a previous World Series MVP in a game seven (Bo Bichette, off Ohtani).

We saw players grinding through injury, most notably Springer and Bichette, but Clement was banged up as well, not like his stats were any clue). 

We saw pure class (every Jays reliever wearing Alex Vesia's #51 on their caps; the L.A. closer was away from the Series for a personal matter).

We saw an eighteen inning gut punch, walked off by Freddie Freeman.

On the other side, we saw probably the most impressive pitching performance I've ever seen, all things considered. Not Yamamoto's game six, as good as that was. No, his game SEVEN. Pitching on HOURS rest (lol), he threw 2 and 2/3 scoreless innings at us. At US, the team that had pretty much bashed every other pitcher to smithereens this postseason. Yamamoto was the first pitcher to pitch the very next game in a postseason series after going six or more innings the day prior since Randy Johnson, who pitched Games 6 and 7 of the 2001 World Series.

Pretty good company. 

There was Shohei Ohtani, the two-way wonder, pitching well and hitting better than well. That dude is scary. The Jays did get him to strike out a few times, but if he put the ball in play his outs tended to be loud. 

And there were the Dodgers' bats, cool to tepid for most of the series, that broke out in the late stages of game seven. You can only keep these guys down so long. The team has Hall of Famers all over it.

Every single position player and every pitcher (a) did something to help win a game in (b)oth the regular and postseason. As such, I'd like to say a few words about each of them, because I have never in my life seen a team that was so clearly a team. Every pundit predicted either a fourth or fifth place finish in the AL East, and I'll admit after the first couple months of the season, it did look like the pundits were right. But starting at the beginning of July this team caught fire and gelled in an incredibly special way. It took them within 90 feet -- or perhaps within a couple of inches, if Isiah Kiner-Falefa had only ran through or dove headfirst -- from taking down the behemoths of baseball.

I was going to do a report card on every player, the way I used to for Leaf teams that didn't even make the playoffs. But the parade of As and A-plusses gets boring (and yes, relative to expectations, most of this roster gets at least an A). 

So let me go one through nine, from game seven, before I tackle the pitchers in their World Series starting order, then a couple of others who deserve a shout-out. 

1) George Springer, DH: A resurgent season for the 35-year old. He showed hockey-level grit after getting drilled by a fastball, only missing one game, clearly playing through a lot of pain. "Springer Dingers" dotted the season. 

2) Nathan Lukes, LF: TEN YEARS in the minors before he got here and contributed.Pesky hitter, like so many of these Jays. 

3) Vladimir Guerrero, Jr, 1B: Before the ALCS I said Vladdy was overpaid. Putting aside my ironclad conviction that nobody is worth that much, he wasn't performing anywhere close to justifying that contract in my eyes. Well, I still don't think anybody should be given half a billion bucks, especially for playing a game, but if you accept baseball contract logic...he earned his money this postseason.  He batted .397 with a ridiculous OPS of 1.289 (.800 is above average and 1.000 is superstar level). He keeps this up and I may come around on that contract.

4) Bo Bichette, SS: (only led MLB in hits until his injury, and finished leading the Jays in hits despite missing the last twenty games. Came back for the Series, didn't look out of place, hit a monster three run homer in game seven. His defence is questionable and many think he'd be a better 2B. 

5) Anthony ("Bam-Bam")  Barger:, RF:  Rising star that came out of nowhere. Drilled the first pinch-hit grand slam in World Series history; beyond that was an absolute force with a cannon for an arm. Of all the up and comers on this team, he might have the brightest future.

6) Alejandro ("Captain") Kirk, C:  Caught most of the regular season and playoffs. Elite pitch framing and a booming bat. Guerreo might be the face of this team, but Kirk is its heart.

7) Daulton Varsho, CF: His bat went cold at the worst time, but let's not forget this man is a Gold Glover. If something can be caught, he'll probably catch it. And he, too, had his clutch moments. He did hit our first World Series home run since '93.

8) Ernie Clement, 3B: This is another guy nobody wanted, who only turned into the single most dependable hitter on the team and the hardest out in baseball. Set a record for postseason hits with 30 and played great defence as well. He bleeds baby blue, and I hope he can repeat his heroics next season. 

9) Andrés Gimenez 2B/SS Another Gold Glover whose bat came up clutch more than once, including an improbable home run. Another glue guy who exudes the joy of playing the game. 

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, INF: Man, I'm ticked he chose to slide rather than run through the base. We reacquired him for defence and he did provide that, along with a few clutch hits.

SP Kevin Gausman: Our most dependable arm during the season and he pitched well in the Series, just not as well as his opponent. 

SP Trey Yesavage: The only reason I said Barger above might have the highest ceiling on the team is because I don't know how sustainable Trey's freakish delivery is. I could be wrong. I hope I am, because if I am this man has multiple Cy Young seasons ahead of him. When he can command the zone, he's all but unhittable. Stunningly mature demeanour, he came from Low-A all the way to the World Series with icy veins. 

SP Shane Bieber: Risky signing after Tommy John surgery. Paid off. I hope we keep him.

SP ("Mad") Max Scherzer: Love this wily old vet's personality. And his drive. We've likely seen the last of him until his HOF induction. Which WILL happen.

Chris Bassitt: Special shoutout to this starter who moved to the pen for the playoffs and who was literally unhittable until game seven of the Series.  I think he's better suited to relief and I really would like to keep him about as much as he wants to stay.

Jeff Hoffman: he thinks he cost us the Series. No one player did: an awful lot had to go just right for the Dodgers to win that game. There were times I cursed his name during the season, but when he was on, he threw fire, including striking out the side to end a game.

Eric Lauer is another starter turned reliever who pitched very well for us throughout the postseason. 

There are other players who didn't see the field during the Series that I'm curious to see develop, notably Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner. 

This team can be proud of its run, even if the baseball world has already discounted it. (The Jays do not appear on anyone's list to make the Series next year...the lack of respect is puzzling.)

Thank you, Blue Jays. You're a bright light in a dark time.