Yesterday’s game was not all that much fun.
I missed that there was a trade yesterday. The Jays sent Sebastian Rodriguez 20-year-old, right-handed pitcher to the Dodgers for José Rodríguez, a right-handed pitcher, who is 25.
José Rodríguez pitched in Triple-A Oklahoma City this season. In 25 games, 3 starts, with a 3.38 ERA. In 29.1 innings he allowed 23 hits, 1 home run, 18 walks and 36 strikeouts. I’m sure you noticed the number of walks, but he does get strikeouts. The Jays wanted him because he’s closer to the majors. As we’ve seen, they have used any nearly major league ready arm they have. The Dodgers were going to be calling him up and he is eligible for the Rule Five draft.
Sebatian has pitched 9 innings of pro-ball, in the Dominican Summer League, so he’d a long way from the major leagues.
Yesterday’s game wasn’t great, but seeing Spence Miles hit 100 mph with his fastball was interesting. He’s averaged 96.0 mph this season.
On Spencer Miles hitting
— Hazel Mae (@thehazelmae) September 2, 2026
100 mph tonight, John Schneider said:
“Pete (Walker) and I were looking at each other like, damn, that was pretty good. He continues to impress us.. continues to get better.. running out of good things to say about him.”
He’d been an amazing Rule 5 pick up.
We complain about challenges that our catchers get wrong, but Alejandro Kirk has been right 49 times and wrong 32, 15th in baseball among the 44 catchers with 50 challenges Brandon Valenzuela, on the other hand, has been right 22 times and wrong 30 times the lowest percentage in baseball among catchers with more than 50 challenges. I’d be curious to see the numbers if we could just look at first inning challenges. It feels like we get more of those wrong, but it is likely because first inning challenges irritate me, whether they are right or wrong, so when one is wrong it plays into that mindset.
I like to think there are no ‘must win’ games until we get down to either playoffs or the game that will eliminate us from the playoffs, but tonight’s game seems close to a must win game. We have Dylan Cease going. We pretty much need to win his starts.
No pressure Dylan.