Our Braves traveled to Canada for the first time in a couple of years to face the Toronto Blue Jays.
It happens that the great Canadian singer songwriter–and Toronto resident–Gordon Lightfoot passed away last week. If You Could Read My Mind, you would know that I’m a big Lightfoot fan. In honor of him and other great Canadian songwriters, this recap will include song titles from many Canadian artists. Not surprisingly, given my musical tastes, the songs and the songwriters will be mostly from the 1960’s and 70’s. Grand Prize for the one who can identify the most song titles.
The Braves embarked Friday on a six game road trip, facing the biggest challenge of the young season. Toronto has an impressive lineup and Texas is surprisingly leading the AL West. When they return home, they must face two tough teams from Across the Great Divide, Seattle and the Dodgers. And the Braves, as you know, must face this stretch with a depleted rotation, thanks to the injuries to Fried and Wright. It’s been said that Only Love Can Break Your Heart, but pitchers and their injuries can do so as well. But this is No Time to let The Weight of those injuries get to you. After all, the Braves came into Friday with a 6.5 game lead. It might be a temporary Ribbon of Darkness, but there is a long way to go, and I’d rather be the Braves than any of their rivals.
The Braves were in Toronto, but at game time this Old Man was Looking at the Rain here in middle Georgia. Fortunately, it was a Beautiful night in Toronto, and the game was played with the roof open.
But the outcome left me Blue, thanks to Chris Bassitt. He spent the game Up on Cripple Creek, tossing a complete game, two hit shutout. This was the Night He Drove Old Dixie Down. As I watched Bassitt, I kept thinking that Someday Soon the Braves would break through against him, but he was blowing through the Braves lineup Like a Hurricane. I’ve looked at Chris Bassitt from Both Sides Now. I’ve seen him when he was not particularly sharp, but on this night he looked like Cortez the Killer. He shot down Braves hitters like they were a Bird on a Wire.
Both pitchers got off to fantastic starts. You had to wonder, would this game be over by Sundown? Through four innings, the starters were dominant. Chris Bassitt was on the Carefree Highway through the first four; he got the Braves 12 up, 12 down. He had tossed just 39 pitches, 30 of them strikes.
But Spencer Strider was Taking Care of Business himself: he allowed only one walk and one hit through four, with eight strikeouts. This Southern Man was making the vaunted Blue Jays lineup look Helpless.
In the fifth inning both pitchers got into trouble. Eddie Rosario got the Braves’ first hit with a one out double. Bassitt then hit the next two hitters (Albies and d’Arnaud) and walked Harris. That should be a run, right? It Makes No Difference, though, because in between the two HBP, Eddie made a stupid baserunning mistake in unsuccessfully attempting to steal third. Arcia flyed out to right to leave the bases loaded.
The Blue Jays broke through against Strider in the bottom of the fifth. A single, walk and single led to one run. A second run appeared to score on the play, but replay showed that Murphy tagged Kiermaier out at the plate, so the score remained 1-0.
The Braves had another great opportunity to score in the top of the sixth, with two on and no out after a Ronald single and Olson walk. But Riley grounded into a double play, and that chance quickly went for naught.
Bassitt regained his bearings, getting the Braves out on six pitches in the seventh.
Strider left the game with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and a runner on second. It was another excellent outing by Aragorn, having struck out 12. But Spencer throws so many pitches that he can’t go much deeper than that. He tossed a season high 110 pitches. Loogy Danny Young was brought in to get the lefty hitting Kiermaier. The three batter minimum rule led to disaster, as on this night Young was Born to Be Wild. The loogy didn’t get the lefty; he walked Kiermaier and needed to be removed, but that was not an option. Young walked Springer to load the bases (he really needed to be taken out then!) and then a wild pitch scored the Blue Jays’ second run.
Kirby Yates gave up a solo home run in the 8th to make it 3-0, but it didn’t matter, as Bassitt was cruising. I was surprised to see him come out for the ninth, but he got the Braves 1, 2, 3 once again, completing the game on just 103 pitches.
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Speaking of Canadians, today is the 88th birthday of Felipe Alou, who is a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. Felipe was the second Dominican to play in MLB, and the first Dominican manager. He’s in the Canadian baseball HoF because he was the long time manager of the Expos, including the best team they ever had in 1994. He was also my second favorite Brave when they moved to Atlanta in 1966. What a family! Alou had two brothers who were big leaguers (one of whom won a batting title), a son who was a star outfielder, another son who was a big league manager, and a nephew who was a sold pitcher for several years.
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The Braves take on the Jays again Saturday afternoon behind Bryce Elder. I expect us to get back to Rockin in the Free World.
You’ve outdone yourself, good sir.
My goodness, that was fantastic.
In past years, we’ve seen Braves teams that didn’t deserve the level of writing on this blog. This year, the team is every bit as good as we are, but even when the offense has an off night, you never do, Tfloyd.
A lot easier to shake this one off when the record is still 25-13 and the Mets are 19-20. As someone born just south of Canada once said, don’t think twice, it’s alright.
I have very strong feelings about Canadian artists. With few exceptions, I either love them (BTO, Joni Mitchell, Mike Soroka) or hate them (Lightfoot, Neil Young, Justin Trudeau) I can die happy if I never again have to mourn the poor souls of the Edmund FItzgerald. I have a non-Canadian attitude towards Canadians.
As Alex and I have pointed out in the past, you should never leave out Sloan, though, unless you want to risk Fading Into Obscurity. (My personal favorite Canadian anthem.)
Finally, as those great Americans, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have justifiably opined: Blame Canada
I’m undecided!
I’m not necessarily vouching for the Canadian artists I reference. I certainly do like some better than others. I like BTO just fine, but you really prefer them to Neil Young? I don’t like everything he’s done (who could?) but at his best he was as good as it gets. But YMMV.
And although the ones in my post are all icons of the 60’s and early 70’s (I can hear my own kids sighing, ok, boomer), there are some Canadian songwriters of this millennium I like. Kathleen Edwards is pretty great.
Canada doesn’t need nor want my defense, but one more great Canadian: what about the best GM in baseball? AA is a native of Montreal.
My distaste for Neil Young is unexplainable. I like a lot of artists like Neil Young; I have no problem with CSN&Y; it’s definitely not Lynyrd Skynyrd clapbacks (although I did find that fun). Also (as long as we’re getting picky) I like The Band, but wasn’t it really Arkansan Levon Helm that anchored them? (I could even divide The Band’s Canadians into likes and dislikes: Garth Hudson++, Robbie Robertson—)
But good catch; AA is definitely in my top 5 Canadians.
Levon was the heart and soul of The Band. Robbie got all the songwriting credits—although that was the cause of deep bitterness and division for decades after the breakup.
Last night’s game left me Undun. At No Time did I feel like Laughing. These Eyes didn’t see much Brave’s offense, and it was clear there would be No Sugar Tonight.
Re: The Guess Who/Canadian Music
I go to a lotta music conventions & the best keynote I ever saw was at Canadian Music Week in Toronto about 10 years ago. Randy Bachman (former Guess Who & BTO) explained everything that went into writing the Guess Who’s “American Woman.” If you know that song, think about the lyrics & imagine the context of the time. After I left that room, I marveled that how a subversive song like that ever got on US radio. (And check out the Butthole Surfers’ version – it’s a mind-scrambler.)
Huge fan of The Band, Leonard Cohen, & Neil Young. I like a decent portion of Joni Mitchell and some of Rush (only up thru “Moving Pictures”). As a kid, I owned “The Best of BTO (So Far).” I think “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is a great song, and probably the weirdest song ever to become an enormous radio hit. (It’s over 6 minutes & it went to #2 on the charts, just behind Rod Stewart.) Btw, the Lightfoot doc on Amazon Prime is pretty great. And yes, Sloan is still kicking.
Sadly, The Band really lost its soul when 3 of the 5 guys (Helm, Danko & Manuel) developed terrible drug habits & quit writing good songs… As great as those 1st 2 albums were, the 2nd half of its career output was definitely spotty. FWIW, “The Last Waltz” is still my favorite music movie. But hey, I’m 59. (BTW, Robertson’s doc, “Once Were Brothers,” is worth seeing.)
Missed last night’s Jays game. Was at Rays/Yanks. It was Anthony Rizzo Bobblehead Night. Rizzo hit 2 HRs, incl. one in the 1st inning & the game-winner in the 8th. Kinda weird.
Game thread, btw.
I’m very late to this, but went to Milan last week to see Diana Krall and she played a spectacular version of “If You Could Read My Mind” in tribute to Gordon’s passing