Jays Get Thumped by Orioles in Series Opener

0:00Alright Kevin Barker, well, seven-four of the Blue Jays lose to the Baltimore Orioles in the first game of this crucial three game series against a team that is very much in the same wildcard picture as the Blue Jays are. The game pretty much over in the second inning. Maxures are on the mound, six consecutive hits to open the inning. Five of them singles. All of the singles going to right field, I believe. I believe the double went into left field and the Blue Jays mustering a bit of a late rally but not enough in quite frankly a game. Kevin, they had to win. Yeah, I think so. Well, they have an opportunity to tie the game to just to sort of gain some of them

1:03there in the first inning after the spring or single of Vladivar had a really good at bat. One and two had the seven pitch wall and then gets picked off first base. That's very college. I mean, I don't want to be mean. I don't want to be that guy. It's time of the year you can't make mistakes like that. That's a veteran first baseman seeing that his veteran pitcher on the mound is going through it. You got a guy who has his back turned to you, has shoulder squared to the catcher. That's a no-no. That's the big leagues. If you're going to get that big of lead, I always say this to you, Jeff, when you're a slower clunkier base runner, not saying he ain't a good base runner, but he ain't the fastest of guys, right? You need a short lead, big secondary lead. If you're not going to do that with less than two outs, you need to have shoulder square to second base with a runner in front of you. You know how you do that, Jeff? Because you can see the first baseman. If he's trying to back pick on you, you can see him going. That's why you have shoulders sort of towards second base.

2:05That way eyes are on the runner, eyes are on the pitcher, eyes are on the first baseman, and that doesn't happen. So it's just one of the spots where this time of the year when your line-ups not going to run, you know, I could he tell Max what's going through it in the first turn? I don't know. I mean, he threw a cutter, walked right down the middle to the lefty and the lefty put it in the seats. It's just, again, I don't want to pile on bloody, but it's just situations like this late in the season when you're fighting and every single out, every single mistake matters to the end degree. You can't make mistakes like that. When you do, second inning shows up and they sort of had the separate. Yeah. It's a runner in second base, too. So I mean, that was the other thing, Springer's in second base. Yeah, an interesting night for Vladie. Five played appearances, one walk. He does get a hit in the ninth inning to set up that, well not set up, but extend that rally a little bit. It wasn't in, I mean, I shouldn't laugh.

3:06It wasn't in field hit. Another night where Vladie didn't get a ball out of the infield. It was, I don't know, just a chopper. But an interesting night, Vladie booed loudly on a couple of occasions, once after getting picked off another time after striking out in the third inning with a couple of runners on. But you know, you could tell, this is the way it's going to be with Vladie for the next two weeks or so. Vladie comes up to the plate every inning after those two mistakes in the crowds, chanting his name, Vladie, Vladie, Vladie. And that's kind of where we are. People dearly want him to do something. So do we. But they're quite prepared to boom when it doesn't work out. Yeah, when you're not hitting all the other things matter, Jeff, it's base running. It's after Kirk, he walks, it's base is loaded, and the ninth elucus is up. You know, instead of two outs, first and second, Nathan elucus is up.

4:09You're at the long stride. Sometimes just the connection of trying to get barrel to baseball sometimes is not always there. It's easier basis loader less than two outs than, you know, your buddy getting picked off first, Kirk, he walks first and second two outs, then you need to get a hit to have success. It's just, it makes it harder for the guy standing on the on deck circle. The guy walking to the plate, those kind of things. Just this time of the year, you can't do it. Again, I get back that's college stuff. Like just getting picked off first. It's it's it really is like it with guy who's at first? Who's on the mound? How the guy looks at the mound? It just it just can't happen. And when it does, you get big seven for the blue jays have their fourth loss in five games will keep you informed as to what's going on in the other town scoreboard. But we want to hear from you four 168 7 0 0 5 90 star 5 90 one triple A triple six 0 5 90. The text line is open 5 90 5 90 is the text line standard message and data rates may

5:12apply. What did you make of Mac sure is your shouting today Kevin? Yeah, I don't know yet. Some bad luck in the second inning. You know, the two strikes single. The fastball way was good pitch. That's that's good hitting. I mean, once I got to give credit, what credits do the slider? Oh, two was a good pitch. That's good hitting the hanging curve for the RBI. That was a bad pitch. You paid for that. The the role of the double you were talking about down the left field line. That's a bad pitch. The change up. That was good hitting that he gave up the RBI. I think it was two RBI single to right center field. I mean, that's a decent pitch. Five of the six where it gets lefties the hits. He just had a real tough time. I think in that in that second inning of adding and subtracting, locating or some good hitting in there. So a little bit of everything happened. And then after that, he sort of lived on the edges, which is what I'm saying. What you need to do when when all things are not working the way you want to, he gave him all he had. I think you got to give him credit for that. He made some adjustments. Again, the the slower breaking ball, the change up.

6:14It looked to me like he eliminated the cutter. He just didn't have good feel. He couldn't get that worry wanted to get it, which was on the edges. Fast ball was a little bit better after that. He gave him five. I mean, after the second inning, you said he gives you five. At least he's saving the guys for tomorrow. I mean, I think that's the win on that side. It's just offensively. Sometimes the hard watch. Justin and Vancouver, you're on Blue Jays talk. Hey, gentlemen, good to be with you. Kevin, you said you didn't want to pile on bloody, but I'm going to do it for you. I have a bit fired up tonight. Look, when is enough enough with pampering this guy? As an organization, you're set in my opinion, you're setting the wrong signals when you don't hold everyone to the same standard. And if I had to blame John and leadership for one thing this year, it's the handling of that relationship. I mean, ideally, the standard you set as a team is met surpassed and led by example from a superstar athlete, but you're not helping Vladie out in my opinion when you don't hold

7:14him accountable for not setting that bar. And you know, if you have a good relationship with someone, you should be able to challenge them without worrying about your long term relationship or your job status. And I think John's going to really tough spot because I think he does worry about that. And maybe you're rightly so because of how long Vladie's contract runs. And so for me, those are not good organizational dynamics long term. And I think it's something to be a little worried about. And I think if we asked ourselves, I think we might need to start asking ourselves, what would Pat Murphy do with Vladimir Guerrero? What do you do anything differently? I don't know. I'll leave that with you guys. Kazama Alpumoto has 31 home runs this year. 20 of them are solo shots. I don't know why Kirk and Kaz are not your two, three or three, four hitters moving forward for the rest of the season. You know, go buy the numbers and put the players who are actually performing better than Vladie ahead of them. It's about your message at the beginning of the year. You know, you said you're going to run a meritocracy. And I think you're directly contradicting that message with how you felt with Vladimir

8:15Guerrero Jr. this year. I'm tired of it. I'm super. This tonight was again, some of the worst is bad that's seen all year. And yeah, when's enough enough? And thanks for letting me rant and appreciate you guys as always. Appreciate the call, Justin. Well, I don't think when's enough is enough. I think in 2026 it really doesn't matter because I don't think anything's, I don't think anything's, I don't think anything's going to change here. Not with 14 games, look. I think it's that straightforward moving Kirk into the number two spot. I mean, I guess doesn't matter who hits into the double play with Alejandro Kirk on base. I mean, I'm not entirely certain. We've talked about Vladie at nauseam. John's not going to move him into the sixth or seventh spot in the order. And yeah, beyond that, I think what John has asked of Vladie is that he works hard and all those good things, I think.

9:20And I just, they know what Vladie's doing behind the scenes more than we do. I just don't know what you do. I really don't. I just don't. Yeah, but you can understand fans being frustrated. Oh, yeah, I can understand fans being frustrated, but it's baseball. You don't move in a guy down in the order. It doesn't change who he is or what he's doing that year. You know, maybe it changes the dynamics of the team. Listen, I mentioned the best baseball that Jay's have played this year is when Vladie was out with a concussion. And that's a fact. And, you know, we talked about it at the time. But I don't know what you do. You got a guy who's here in the first year of a 14 year contract. He's one of the highest paid players in baseball. And, you know, whatever fans, you know, may imagine that is that factors into that factors into the decision.

10:21You know, it doesn't every sport. I mean, your highest paid guy, yeah, you're supposed to hold him to a higher standard. And you hope that they respond. But, you know, that's kind of kind of the bed, the bed you're in right now. Yeah, you know, I think if you have a legit, better option. Yeah, I mean, look, if Bo was still in the team here or something like that, you could do that. Yeah, I think Caso Camoto has a real tough time with spin away. But John's trying to get enough traffic on the basis to where guys have to attack him a certain way to his strength. I think that's why he's down in the order. Again, I've said this a couple of times. And I was just spring training. Not one time to John tell me that they were expecting Caso Camoto to be in the middle of the order. There was a reason for that. There were some unknowns there. The spin not getting used to it. He's had spin trouble all year now. He hit the sweeper tonight for the double. But it's just I don't think because one guy struggling, you put all the emphasis on another guy. I get the callers point about the 31 homers and you do want to push him up there. John's tried to do that.

11:22Jeff, like he's tried to stick Okamoto a little bit higher. And you've seen kind of, it's a little all over the place. Right? Again, I just, this is what it is with the line of the team. They really don't have anybody. They don't have anybody right now who is so good that I've got to blow my line up up to, I mean, they just don't. There's nobody in this team that I feel that I need to make a drastic line of change to benefit. And I think the one guy's Brett Bateman, he's exactly where you want. I think it's too late for John to do something. You know, the perfect time was coming off the concussion. That was the perfect time. Kirk, he was red hot. You could move in. You could put him wherever you wanted to put him. Like, and nobody could argue that even Vlad. No, Vlad, he couldn't have went in there and went, what are you doing? Why are you doing this? He could, there was an opportunity there, a window that he could have hit him fifth or wherever he wanted to put him. He didn't do that. Now you're married to this. You live and die with the guy. I mean, this is just what, this is the reality of it. But I'm going to say that getting picked off first in the first inning with you being down a run.

12:25Who's on the mound for you? What the other pitcher was going through? There's no excuse for that. I'm sorry. You know, you know, there's relationships, there's respect, there's having a dude's back. And then they're just screwing up when you shouldn't be screwing up. That again, I get back to that Jeff. That's college stuff. It is. You just don't do that at the big league level. Not this time of the year when you're not hitting your teams trying to make it to the playoffs. You're trying to do as much as you possibly can to make it easier for the guy to have success following you. Basis loaded one out. Lucas up. You take that how many times? A lot. It's not the head. Everybody goes through these things. John's married to who he's married to, where he's putting them in the order. But these things on the basis, man, we see that we're curking out scorn from second. We saw it in Vladivostia. But that if you're a coach on this team, that would be a hard thing to be quiet about. Deand Maple, you're on Blue Jays talk.

13:26Hey guys, I think Justin Lascala was a thousand percent correct. I mean, listen, they said they tried everything. The only thing they haven't tried is dropping them down in the lineup. What's that going to do? Well, you know what it's going to do is it's going to put somebody else who might be able to get one clutch hit every 10 at bats. When it comes to a guy who's on third base of less than one out, he is filled. Pick a guy. Tell me who that is. Anybody. You know, pick a guy. It's not anybody. You know that. Pick a guy. To pick to bat second. Well, I mean, Vlad, he was hitting third tonight. What would you do at the lineup? Well, I'd have Bateman leading off. Obviously I'd have Luke's batting second. I'd have Sprayer batting third. I'd have Kirk batting fourth. And I'd have Oak batting fifth. I mean, I'm putting I'm putting Vlad in the six hole. You never know like I mean, sometimes the pressure, you know, he doesn't put as much pressure in the six hole. Who knows? I'm just saying doing the same thing over and over and over again. What's the stat on? How many games has Vlad had two extra bass hits on the season?

14:27Can your producer pull up that number? If it's more than six, I'd be shocked. A $35 million dollar guy. And he's got six games or less. I'm sure of it. Would less than two extra bass hits in a game. I mean, Bret Bateman has more home runs at the Rogers Center this year than Vlad. He does. Yeah. And so do the book. 200 other visiting quad layers. Well, that's you are right about that. You're absolutely right about that. Listen, no, listen, I get the, I get the, I get the feeling and I get the fans anger. And I think Kevin's right and we both said it at the time. The time to move Vladie down on the lineup. If you assume it's going to do some, I don't think it does. But if you assume it's going to do some, it would have been when he had come off the concussion IL. And thank you for the call. You know, you say to him, Vladie, we're playing well. You know, you're hitting sixth and away you go. And I'm with the callers and that I don't, I don't, hitting third, hitting sixth to me.

15:31Again, to me, if you're demoting somebody, if you're sending a message, you don't hit them six. You don't hit them in the middle of the order. You want to send a message to somebody. You hit them seventh or eighth or ninth down in the bottom. I mean, let's be fair. If he were to drop to be the six hole, you, you would have been the first guy leading the charge of he's been demoted. No, I would not. Yeah, you know, I would, you know, I would not. The five hole is the run producing. No, I wouldn't. I would not. From the second hole with me, he's led all, he's sitting in the three hole. I would not. Most of the time, he would have dropped him to the six hole. That would have been a story forever. Yeah. I mean, well, you know, you might have felt that way, but I wouldn't have. Because I don't, again, I, I don't think that. Big move. Yeah. I guess. But I mean, that would have been the time to do it. You know, I think at the end of the year, I think what a lot of people are kind of annoyed about is that, you know, the team was playing well. And who knows if it would have lasted that long. I mean, I'm not saying that they were going to go in a role without Vlad here, anything like that. But I think what annoys most people is that Vlad, he came back while the team was playing

16:32relatively well. And it was like, he just moved back into his regular spot. And all of a sudden, it started to look the way it looked, you know, it looked earlier this year. But I am with Kevin in this and they're not going to change now. I think now if you make a move, I mean, now you're starting to, to me, now it looks like you're panicking. And yeah, but listen, believe me, I understand. I understand the fans' frustration. There's 42 grand a night here. And they're watching a guy that they have, you know, that's going to be around here for the next 13 or 14 years, not going to ball out of the infield. Yeah, I think fans are a little frustrated because John moves everybody else around in the order except Vlad. That's fair. I can see that. I can see that. But he moves Springer from the lead-off spot to the cleanup spot because Springer wasn't getting it done. But you also didn't come out and say that, but that's the reason why I did it. Yeah, you also know that a lot of times they make those moves and that when they put this lineup together. And there are a lot of hands in that. And you know, a lot of times it's swing path and all that nonsense and trying to get

17:34matchups and how the other team deploys their bullpen. I mean, a lot goes into the lineup, a line of thing. But I mean, you are right. Everybody else has moved around. Vlad, he seems to be, you know, he's the king. He gets what he wants. And yeah, it's like I said, it's too late to change. Yeah, it's the reason why they lost tonight. But you know, you can understand all the fans that are invested in this team that see, you know, the product that runs out there on an everyday basis and the way it looks. And then he gets picked off tonight. You cannot Jeff. You can understand. Yeah, you know, it's just things need to be changed. Like however it's changed, I got my opinion. The only opinion that matters is Vlad. Do you keep on to do this or not? I mean, if it's, you want to keep rolling over, keep doing the same thing. Okay. 416-8700-0590-Star-590-1 Triple H-6-0-590-590-590 is the text line the Blue Jays have dropped.

18:40The first game of this three game series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles jumping out to a six-nothing lead. The Jays rallying, but at the end of the day, the Jays falling seven to four to the Baltimore Orioles. We'll take a break. Come back on the other side. Look at the Edittown scoreboard. And here from the skipper about that play involving Vlad. It's Blue Jays talk on SportsNet 590, the fan in the Blue Jays radio network. Alright. Welcome back to Blue Jays talk on SportsNet 590, the fan in the Blue Jays radio network. 7-4, the Orioles beating the Blue Jays. I've got a little note here from our producer, Show out Lee. Let me just read this before I go to the Edittown scoreboard. Alright, we've got the Jays still haven't announced tomorrow's starter. At least John Schneider didn't maybe.

19:42I imagine it'll probably move on on on on on on social media at some point soon. But John Schneider, the Blue Jays manager, was asked about Vlad. He getting backpicked and about him getting booed. Yeah, I think he just he got out too far. You know, that's a play with the coaches being in the box. Bud was on it, kind of yelling didn't hear him. Just got out too far. And base running plays like that can shift momentum a little bit. But yeah, they could have been a little bit different after a curky walk. But I think he just got out too far and they made a plan. Just further to Vlad. The crowd tonight was booing him at times, cheering his name at times. How would you want him to navigate that? And emotions are heightened, the stakes are high. And even the crowd reaction can vary from A to A B. Yeah, that's tough. I think that's mentally you have to be pretty strong, pretty locked into what you're doing. And I think that, you know, I thought he did a good job of navigating that.

20:45You know, it's tough to get, you know, to hear that and then to hear, you know, 40,000 chanting your name. So I think what you do in the moment is the most important thing. When you have a process that you can stick to no matter what the outcome is, I think that's important. So it's something he's working on and something I thought he handled pretty well tonight. But he gets a lot of fan reaction good and bad, you know, and that kind of comes with being him. But I think just being present in the moment is what's most important. There you go. That is the manager of Blue Jays, John Schneider, talking about Vlad, he's night. And again, people want Vlad to do well. People boo and he doesn't do well, but they want him to do well. And people are prepared, people are prepared to turn in the dime in this market right now, both ways. And I think we've seen that with Vlad. Time now for the standings watch presented by Bet365.

21:49Some of the five runner really pay out must be 19 plus Ontario only please play responsibly. The wild card standings, well let's take a look at the scores first and get you caught up on that. And then we can take a look at the actual standings. The guardians and twins are tied at two, the top of the ninth inning. Cleveland in Minnesota, Cleveland has a man on base. Again, two two in the top of the ninth inning. Of course, the Jays have invested interest in this game, they are chasing the guardians. Desperately I would imagine wanting the twins to beat the guardians. Texas and Arizona, they're scoreless in the bottom of the third inning. Seattle and the athletics are tied at three. That game is early. Sorry they're tied at two, it's in the third inning. And the Detroit Tigers have beaten the Colorado Rocky 6-2. Detroit's still kind of in the fringes of the race I guess.

22:50And the Tampa Bay race, they have clinched a playoff spot. They have clinched a playoff spot. My race. My race. With a 3-1 win over the Houston Astros, the race clinching a playoff spot on junior Caminero's walkoff. Man he's good. So there you go. The race, the first team in the American League as we all predicted. Two clinch a playoff. The wild card standings right now, again keep in mind that there are games being played, Cleveland or Tide or 74 and 73. Toronto's 73 and 75, they're two under. A game and a half back. Texas 72 and 75, two under. Baltimore's now 72 and 76, they're two and a half back Minnesota. They're still hanging in 69, 77, four and a half back. We don't even need to worry about it. The bulls the shoot, huh? Well, I know more or less. Yeah, more or less. And that's enough for folks to think about. Yeah, I think it's good. There's enough. Nobody in these parts. Care about Seattle anyway.

23:52No, no, no. And let me just see, again, if there's any notification on tomorrow's starting picture. And there is none. 416-8700-590-Star-591-Triple-A-Triple-6-0590. I'll get to the text line in a moment. We have a few text, but let's go to JJ and Thorl. Hey, guys. Hey, JJ. Thanks for taking my call. Just a couple of positives off the top. I mean, major credit to Scherzer for getting her five. With a bull 10 day coming tomorrow, I think that's put it in the silver lining category, I guess. Congrats to Martin on the MLB debut. That's a pretty sweet story and making it up to the big leagues after 12 years. That's awesome. Listen, I don't want to pile on. I think the first two colors nailed it, but like I'll just say a couple things. Personally, I love Vlad. With how amazing last year was, I'm willing to let this all go.

24:56Call it a wash with Vlad and hope he gets back on track next year. The talent there, I don't know what he's got to do to figure it out, but he's got to figure out something. For this year, though, we need to figure out a way to do what's best for this version of this team to get into the playoffs because they're still within striking distance. I mean, I've heard you guys talk about the concussion and the best time to change something around was right after that, but the reality is they didn't do that. The best time to plan a tree was 50 years ago. Second best time to plant that tree today. Fans that are better. We talk about Vlad, he posting. The reality is the only thing that's posted this year is the 42K Facebook that is showed up every game this year, trying to just desperately figure out something and cheer for this team and even hear it today. I know there's the push and pull about booing him and cheering him like everyone wants him

25:58to succeed. I'm at the point now where I just think putting him in this three slot is setting him up for failure. You see it on his face. When he disappoints, he wants to succeed. It's not lack of efforts. The effort is there. The effort is there, but he's disappointed every time he's defeated and I honestly believe it's at the point where it's less about putting someone else in that slot to do better, more about protecting the guy. He is getting more and more defeated every time he fails in that slot. I guess the last thing I'll say is when we traded for Brad Bateman, nobody thought Brad Bateman would do what he's doing right now. I'm not saying Brad Bateman should be in the three slot. That's absolutely not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is sometimes in baseball, unexpected things happen. So yes, agreed. There isn't a natural three-hittered slot in for Brad today. But who knows? We got a couple of weeks to go here.

27:01Just shift some things around and maybe someone else gets hot and maybe the guy hits a home run out of the seven slot or the six. I don't know. It probably won't happen. Honestly, you guys are probably right. It probably won't change. But at least at that point, we can look in the mirror and say we tried everything. Because right now, we can't do that. We have not tried everything. So anyway, like, listen, appreciate the time. And anyway, don't chase. Let's do it. Great point, JJ. Appreciate that. I just want to jump in this Aaron and Toronto on the text line. I think the thing with the Ladi is people want visible evidence that quote different things are being tried. Of course, he's working his butt off behind the scenes, but we don't hear or see any other. Moving him is a visible change, but it would just be for changes sake. So a little bit of a difference spin on what JJ said. Listen, JJ is absolutely right. If you operate under the assumption that, you know, you've tried everything. You need to try everything with Ladi.

28:02The Jays can't say that this year because one thing they did not try was moving them down in the order. And I get, I'm not certain it would work. I'm not surprised it hasn't happened, but I understand why people would feel that way. Yeah. Look, I think if you're thinking about the team and you're thinking, does he deserve to hit in front of Bateman? Probably not. Springer. You could argue. Kirk, you know, Lucas, probably not cause a commoto, probably not. There's four guys, four and a half guys that you would think you'd probably put in front of Ladi right now. I just don't see John doing it with 14 left, Jeff. We've talked to him enough. We've had enough conversations on Fridays. I texting back and forth enough to, I just think it is what it is, man. Like he's glad he's either going to get a hit or he's not. That's where we're at. I think that's why we were having the conversation about the pitching and the pitching do enough because of what the offense is not doing. And the guy that's hitting in a three hole to carry this team to the playoffs can be heavy lifting. Yeah, we should shout out by the way, Brett Bateman with his first major league home run.

29:03Yeah. He is having three more hits. He's having quite and three more hits. He's having quite the rookie season. And that season will continue tomorrow afternoon. It will be a 307 first pitch back here at the Roger Center. As the second game of this three game series gets underway, the Blue Jays look into rebound from tonight's loss 7-4. They've lost the first game of the series to the Baltimore. So Blue Jays baseball is brought to you by our local family owned Crown R Us Control Center in Whitby and Richmond Hill, Ontario. Protect your vehicle with Canada's number one R Us Protection. Find your local Crown R Us Control family at crown.com.