Backs Against the Wall, the Blue Jays Must Become Mean and Aggressive Like Their Counterparts in Nature

​The Against the Flow blog writers see the handsome, but nasty, Blue Jays every day around our bird feeder.

The statuesque blue and white bird has an inhospitable, squawky call. No one would mistake a Blue Jay for a sweet little “song bird” like a warbler, a chick-a-dee or a gold finch.

In the spring nesting season, the Blue Jays are the aggressive marauders attacking the nests of smaller birds and making off with their fledglings.

Compared to their avian namesakes, the Toronto Blue Jays have been acting, if you excuse the cross-metaphor, like pussy cats.

Compared to their series with the thundering giants, the New York Yankees, when they played so well, the Blue Jays’ bats have gone silent.  Where are the sluggers like Vladdy Guerrero Jr. and George Springer now, when the team and this whole country need them?

Springer did hit the first pitch he faced for a home run in game two against the Seattle Mariners, but then his bat fell silent. Guerrero looked frustrated and a bit lost. In past games he had been the heart of the team at bat, in his impressive fielding at first base, and in his dynamic base running.

By comparison the Seattle Mariners have looked quietly confident and very strong in both games against the Jays, out-scoring Toronto 13-4 thus far.

The Jays have made mistakes. For example, in their earlier series they celebrated, including Manager John Schneider, long and hard with champagne and all the protective ski masks they needed for their eyes.

It was as if they had won the whole enchilada, the World Series. Schneider was photographed looking fairly wasted, like a teenager, out on the town for his/her first big bash.

It would have been better if Schneider had set a better example for his players and assigned them extra batting practice and urged them to get down to business.

The lesser lights on the team have been carrying a big load. Prime among them has been Ernie Clement who has been terrific in all of the team’s post season baseball. Nathan Lukes has also been fantastic, getting timely hits, and recently, shrugging off a painful ball strike on his knee cap.

Alexandro Kirk has been great as catcher, and at the plate as a steady hitter. Daulton Varsho has been masterful at the bat, and sterling in the field except for one misplayed long ball in Tuesday’s game.

The team’s bullpen has also been stalwart, and these pitchers need to keep up their good work.

Another turning point for the team was in letting their very talented rookie pitcher, Trey Lesavage sound off about how his family had been mistreated on social media. His father, especially, had been exuberant about his son’s terrific performance in his game against the Yankees, when he had struck out 11 batters.

Social media is often unfair, but it would have been better if the team had cautioned Lesavage that he is in the big leagues now and there was no point in losing concentration with a strong public defence at that moment. Lesavage struck out four but was less impressive on Tuesday. 
The baseball Jays can do it. They have tons of talent. What they need now is focus and fire in their bellies on the base paths, in the field and at the plate. They need to show as much aggression and fire as their avian contemporaries.

Meanwhile, as we speak, the Blue Jays of the avian world have taken over our birdfeeder, chasing away the smaller birds. The larger Jay of a pair has put pay to the smaller one. Such is the way of life in the natural world.

Our ball-playing friends need to take notice! They need to roar back for game three in Seattle Wednesday night.