Blue Jays (Lauer) vs Dodgers (Glasnow): 8/10/25, 4:10pm

[Masterbather]

1 minute ago, Stangstag said:

Yall are clearly forgetting the absolute atrocities Schneider committed in the playoffs 2022/2023.

Imagine if this was a playoff game. I can’t take it.

The only atrocities I remember in the playoffs are important players failing to do s***.

I'm not a big manager guy one way or the other, they could fire him tomorrow or they can give him a 5-year contract tomorrow and I would be indifferent, but I've largely agreed with his bullpen management this year. 

Players have to do their job. If the players aren't good or consistent enough, the front office needs to do their job.

We have inconsistent players in the bullpen. That's going to be our life from here until the end of the playoffs.

[G-Snarls]

6 minutes ago, Doubleplay21 said:

Hoffman faced 7 batters and walked 5 and got the win.

Great win for Hoffman for pitching useless.

That's called hanging in there for the win

[G-Snarls]

45 minutes ago, GoBlue41 said:

Maybe I'm a horrible fan but bases loaded, 1 out and Ohtani and Betts coming up? Was I supposed to be relaxed or is it ok that my mind was going to that bad place?? Ha ha! That was a big win. No sweep for you!!!! 

I still can't believe they found a way to win this game 

So happy 

[ComeTogether]

55 minutes ago, Dr. Dinger said:

Fluharty has no business cleaning up this mess. GL bro. 

Guy prove he has the stuff under pressure.  

What a performance. 

[Laika]

Still can't get over Fluharty throwing 12 straight nearly perfect pitches to Ohtani and Betts 

[Laika]

My quarter chicken dinner just arrived 

Perogies on the side 

[John_Havok]

47 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

Well that was an interesting series. 

I think the Dodgers clearly outclassed us. I don't care what their record is, obviously injuries have been an issue but you can see their pedigree.

We scratched and clawed for a win.

If this team is going to have a chance to do absolutely anything, Hoffman is going to have to be an important part of that. Too many excuses have been made this year for this guy, he needs to step the f*** up and stop being a f***ing clown. His stuff is too good for this kind of nonsense.

To be fair, the Dodgers outclass every team in the league. They have HoF talents in the first 3 spots in the order, a HOF starter who's not even their best because their best starter is also one of those HOF talents on the top 3 of the batting order. The pen is legit. 

Beating the Dodgers is a monumental task when they're at their worst...let alone when things are going their way. 

That said... its almost like the Jays were playing with a "deer in the headlights" look, kinda like they were just there to see the Dodgers play amd see what happens. That's probably largely a made up construct, but I didnt get the feeling like the Jays were up for the series and were on their back foot the whole time.

[Jays24]

What a win man.  Seeing Vladdy come up with a clutch HR was amazing.  I've been harping on him not having enough career moments for a guy at his skill/salary level. 

Let's get Springer/Gimenez into the lineup Tuesday hopefully and then wait for our secret weapon in Santandar to come sometime in September to put us over the top!. 

[hanton]

Varland

Hoffman

Fisher

 

Probably ends up like this but Hoffman is going to be given a long leash (like it or not, Atkins)

[GoBlue41]

Only won 1, but didn't lose ground to the Red Sox or Yanks during the 3 game series. Pretty happy about that. Let's get healthy and keep chuggin' along. Some guy named Bieber is on the way as well! :) 

[Stangstag]

50 minutes ago, Terminator said:

Schneider kind of got stuck in no man’s land at a certain point

If he takes Hoffman out for Nance then you are looking at Ohtani vs Nance bc of the 3 batter rule

he was just begging Hoffman to get an out and he couldn’t do it 

its 95 percent Hoffman’s fault and Schneider did go to Varland early which kept us in the game 

You gotta pull him after the first walk to start the 9th. Inexcusable 

[hanton]

47 minutes ago, ComeTogether said:

Guy prove he has the stuff under pressure.  

What a performance. 

This can not be underestimated

[John_Havok]

4 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

You gotta pull him after the first walk to start the 9th. Inexcusable 

I lift some after the 2nd walk... it was clear he had no control at all.

Thing is, hes the guy. Right now, rightly or wrongly, hes going to be the guy called on in the 9th the majority of the time. Unless they decide to give him a bit of a breather in a setup role to try and get his game back... hes gonna be the guy. 

I think one of the real problems is not using him for 7 days at time... yeah gonna be a bit rusty. Get him in there a bit more to keep him in a flow and rhythm.

[ComeTogether]

 

 

[Big_Walleye]

32 minutes ago, Stangstag said:

You gotta pull him after the first walk to start the 9th. Inexcusable 

They won the game.

[Masterbather]

36 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I lift some after the 2nd walk... it was clear he had no control at all.

Thing is, hes the guy. Right now, rightly or wrongly, hes going to be the guy called on in the 9th the majority of the time. Unless they decide to give him a bit of a breather in a setup role to try and get his game back... hes gonna be the guy. 

I think one of the real problems is not using him for 7 days at time... yeah gonna be a bit rusty. Get him in there a bit more to keep him in a flow and rhythm.

People just got to understand this is a high variability bullpen. Big arms with great stuff but a lot of inconsistency built in. There's only so much a manager can do to navigate that game after game. There's only a certain amount of lights out guys in the league and we ain't got none of them.

[BB17]

Everyone understands it’s on the players to perform which is why it was clear as day Hoffman didn’t have it at any point in the outing. When you are the manager it’s all about putting the team in the best chance to win.

What JS did at the beginning of the game bringing Varland in was a great move. But you don’t manage the game from the 3rd inning like a “must win” game all to just throw it away in the 9th because Hoffman is your “closer”. There has been more than a few times this season where Hoffman has looked lost out there only for him to implode and give up 4 or 5 runs. It’s August and the team is in a division race, now is not the time to pray a guy is going to miraculously figure it out on the mound.

[John_Havok]

5 minutes ago, Masterbather said:

People just got to understand this is a high variability bullpen. Big arms with great stuff but a lot of inconsistency built in. There's only so much a manager can do to navigate that game after game. There's only a certain amount of lights out guys in the league and we ain't got none of them.

It's definitely a higher variance pen.

If ya look at each guy, they all have strengths, and all have weaknesses too. It sucks when all the weaknesses seem to show up at the same time. 

 

[Jays24]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torontobluejays/s/4ZJR275ti9

That "check swing" by Ohtani was the most egregious call ive seen in sometime.  The angle doesnt even do the play justice considering how hard Ohtani turned his body to commit to the swing. 

The fact he was able to pull it back as much as he did shows how strong he is but also how stupid the ump was.  

[BB17]

And JS bringing in Straw to PH against a LHP while also bringing in Davis the same inning as defensive replacement made absolutely zero sense. Davis is clearly the better hitter, I still haven’t seen anything on why the hell me made that move.

I agree that managers don’t make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things and JS has been pretty good for the most part this season. But let’s not pretend JS didn’t make some absolute blunders today.

[Laika]

6 minutes ago, BB17 said:

Everyone understands it’s on the players to perform which is why it was clear as day Hoffman didn’t have it at any point in the outing. When you are the manager it’s all about putting the team in the best chance to win.

What JS did at the beginning of the game bringing Varland in was a great move. But you don’t manage the game from the 3rd inning like a “must win” game all to just throw it away in the 9th because Hoffman is your “closer”. There has been more than a few times this season where Hoffman has looked lost out there only for him to implode and give up 4 or 5 runs. It’s August and the team is in a division race, now is not the time to pray a guy is going to miraculously figure it out on the mound.

The entire pen was gone other than Fluharty and 34 year old journeyman Nance 

It never really made complete sense to go to Fluharty until the platoon advantage made it make sense

If he went to Nance against Call for example, he's committing to Nance against Ohtani.

Wild closers like Hoffman can find their release point and suddenly be nearly unhittable. For *most* of Hoffman's outing it still made sense to kind of think that could happen. Obviously if they still had Little to use they probably would have deployed the replacement RP sooner - against Call or Freeland.

[Stangstag]

26 minutes ago, Jays24 said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Torontobluejays/s/4ZJR275ti9

That "check swing" by Ohtani was the most egregious call ive seen in sometime.  The angle doesnt even do the play justice considering how hard Ohtani turned his body to commit to the swing. 

The fact he was able to pull it back as much as he did shows how strong he is but also how stupid the ump was.  

That's awful

[Stangstag]

22 minutes ago, Laika said:

The entire pen was gone other than Fluharty and 34 year old journeyman Nance 

It never really made complete sense to go to Fluharty until the platoon advantage made it make sense

If he went to Nance against Call for example, he's committing to Nance against Ohtani.

Wild closers like Hoffman can find their release point and suddenly be nearly unhittable. For *most* of Hoffman's outing it still made sense to kind of think that could happen. Obviously if they still had Little to use they probably would have deployed the replacement RP sooner - against Call or Freeland.

Agree to disagree

[BB17]

17 minutes ago, Laika said:

The entire pen was gone other than Fluharty and 34 year old journeyman Nance 

It never really made complete sense to go to Fluharty until the platoon advantage made it make sense

If he went to Nance against Call for example, he's committing to Nance against Ohtani.

Wild closers like Hoffman can find their release point and suddenly be nearly unhittable. For *most* of Hoffman's outing it still made sense to kind of think that could happen. Obviously if they still had Little to use they probably would have deployed the replacement RP sooner - against Call or Freeland.

Fluharty vs Muncy is a platoon advantage. It was clear after the first batter in 9th Hoffman had nothing. He had walked 2 guys in the 8th and got to 3 balls on Conforto while getting lucky he popped out. Then he walks the first guy in the 9th. Add in the fact he had thrown a ton of pitches to that point and likely was pretty fatigued I don’t see a good argument for keeping him in.

They are honestly lucky he didn’t leave a ball right over the plate and have it leave the yard like what happened against Cleveland earlier in year.

[Brownie19]

I'm late to the party - but that's a massive win. Gutsy performance from Fluharty.  Dodgers are really good.  Ohtani is next level.  

[Stangstag]

[Brownie19]

That is unacceptable...

[keggy]

3 hours ago, Buster said:

Don't you just move the best reliever into the closer job now?

Varland?

You spelled Fisher wrong.

[hanton]

I think check swings are probably 50/50, umpires kinda have to guess if it's close. Replays show its nearly impossible to truly hold up once the bat leaves your shoulder 

[Brownie19]

53 minutes ago, hanton said:

I think check swings are probably 50/50, umpires kinda have to guess if it's close. Replays show its nearly impossible to truly hold up once the bat leaves your shoulder 

To be honest, I actually think the umpires do a pretty good job at this.  I agree - it feels like it's just a guess because it happens so fast, but I'm always amazed at how accurate they seem to be once they show the replay.  Obviously they still screw up (as they did last night), but they probably get it correct 90% of the time.