Season over, another two-and-out Wild Card series - this time, to the Minnesota Twins. 2-0, ballgame.

As soon as John Schneider, under the guise of Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro, took the ball from Jose Berrios in the fourth inning, it’s not an overstatement to say that every Blue Jays fan in the country knew Toronto was losing Game 2.

Right up there with Blake Snell being pulled in the world series, nerds who stare too long at spreadsheets and spend far too few hours watching actual baseball pre-determined that a Kikuchi-for-Berrios swap was the right thing to do. Perhaps, in some alternate universe where common sense doesn’t exist, they would be right. But not here. On Earth. In an elimination game.

Blue Jays fans will trash anyone from John Schneider to Mark Shapiro on social media, and justifiably so. Analytics, suggesting that facing two righties late in the game instead of Alex Kirilloff and Matt Wallner, preemptively decided that Toronto’s fate would hang in the balance of a nervous-looking, semi-consistent Yusei Kikuchi. Kikuchi, mind you, who hasn’t pitched out of the bullpen in a full year. Tim Mayza? Genesis Cabrera? There were no limits, as John Schneider told the press less than twenty-four hours ago, with regards to available arms.

John Schneider, Guillermo Martinez, Don Mattingly, Ross Atkins, Mark Shapiro, and Alex Wong should face the music - but they won’t. Each stooge will cover for another stooge, and the endless protect-your-own mentality will continue to bring this organization no closer to the promised land. That said, neither will the likes of Cavan Biggio and Matt Chapman, among others.

Cavan Biggio, who’s best offensive season came in a shortened 2020 campaign, continued to not hit. Matt Chapman, who hasn’t been able to hit most of the regular season, continued to not hit. Brandon Belt, who entered the game 0-8 against Sonny Gray, continued to not hit - while batting second! Nobody on the team can pull a baseball, and nobody on the team can hit with runners in scoring position. To perfectly combine all these points, a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the sixth inning ended with Matt Chapman grounding into a double-play.

Guillermo Martinez, who only remains the hitting coach due to his friendliness with Rogers’ current failing regime of Atkins and Shapiro, turns 39 years old on October 5th. Professionally, Martinez never made it out of A-ball in organized ball. Hitting .201 as a 23-year old, he was released from then-Florida’s minor league system. This is who Toronto has turned to in an effort to produce offence? Please.

It doesn’t start and end with John Schneider, no, for he is just a cog in this  failure of a management team’s plan to produce a playoff win - much less a series. I hope you feel good about yourself though Ross, as you continue to rake in the dollars alongside your Cleveland pal Mark while wasting away one of the best pitching staffs the Blue Jays have ever had. Analytically.

While Daulton Varsho strikes out for the nth time, Gabriel Moreno crushes home runs off Corbin Burnes. As Cavan Biggio wastes a spot in your lineup, Addison Barger and Orelvis Martinez sit in AAA. For as good as Danny Jansen can be, injuries have continued to pile up. There are so many obvious, glaring problems with the Blue Jays, yet those at the top of the food chain would rather sit around and play what-can-my-spreadsheet-predict-next. A firing, ideally, but just like we knew taking Jose Berrios out would backfire, we know you’ll let this happen over and over again.

All this to say, none of this matters if you can only score one run in eighteen innings. You won’t win here, with the Dodgers, or Astros, or anywhere. Take a look at Cincinnati, who narrowly missed the playoffs, and honestly tell yourself that what Toronto is doing is better than them - an organization owned by Bob Castellini, who has openly stated he does not care about winning.

While I’m at it, learn to run the bases Bo. You too, Vlad. Both of you got dummied by Carlos Correa, who we all know most of North America can’t stand. Come on. Getting picked off at second base, in that situation, is something a AA team wouldn’t let happen. Embarrassing.

Oh and the Tampa Bay Rays lost two in a row to Texas, also only scoring once in eighteen innings, so at least you managed to survive a few hours longer than them, right? Bite me.

I wonder if Alex Anthopoulos has had any success recently?