Blue Jays Morning Brew: Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive

The Toronto Blue Jays have lived to fight another day. Marco Estrada put forth one of the greatest starts in Blue Jays playoff history on Wednesday night, holding the Kansas City Royals in check while the offense enjoyed a steady collective performance. Both teams get a chance to catch their breath today, and as the fans do the same, let’s kick off your Playoff Thursday with a cup of the Morning Brew.

Loup-holes  –  Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post explored the unique situation with Aaron Loup, and how the MLB’s lack of a postseason bereavement lis is leaving the Jays to play with 24 men. Major League Baseball has these rules in place to prevent teams from freely tinkering their their roster mid-series. There’s got to be a better way, though, and the Blue Jays petitioned the MLB for the ability to place Loup on the disabled list. Unfortunately, it’s taken these unique circumstances to highlight the need for change.

Cecil eyeing return  –  Brett Cecil continues to build towards a World Series return, as he tells Arden Zwelling of Sportsnet. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be ready to go for the World Series,” Cecil says. “The guys have got to get me there first, but I’ll make sure I’m there for them.” If he is able to return even at 90% of his old self, it will bring a great deal of balance to the bullpen roles.

Framed!  –  Russell Martin gives some fascinating insight here to Kristina Rutherford of Sportsnet, especially when he discusses the art of pitch framing. Instead of trying to deceive the umpire into seeing something that is not there, he works to “funnel” the ball on it’s existing trajectory back into the zone. “I don’t see it that way. I just try to embellish.”

Bautista’s enemy list  –  Add Derek Holland to the list of clowns people with a distaste of Jose Bautista over his bat flip incident. As Jeff Simmons tells us, in a recent radio appearance, Holland said ““I mean, personally, I don’t like him, either. Especially after seeing more about him during the game, and being out in the outfield and seeing how he complains about every single thing.” Check out the rest of the quotes from the article, and ask yourself if it sounds like a pitcher who’s still bitter over a shelling from the Blue Jays. Sure does to me.

Colabello getting noticed  –  A great profile on Chris Colabello here from Alexis Brudnicki of Baseball America, who speaks with the unlikely star that always expected to end up here. Along the way, Colabello continues to prove his doubters wrong. “That’s what I use as internal fire,” he said. “My way of saying, ‘I told you so’ is going out on the field. I internalize a lot of that stuff because it motivates me. It motivates me on days when I’m not feeling my best or I’m not at my best and I’m still figuring out a way to get stuff done.”

Next: Hendriks making a case for more work in postseason and beyond

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