Blue Jays’ try-hard quotes after series loss to Yankees are sad

TORONTO, ON - JUNE 18: Manager Charlie Montoyo of the Toronto Blue Jays speaks to first base umpire Ryan Wills in the fourth inning during a MLB game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre on June 18, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - JUNE 18: Manager Charlie Montoyo of the Toronto Blue Jays speaks to first base umpire Ryan Wills in the fourth inning during a MLB game against the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre on June 18, 2022 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

The Toronto Blue Jays are patting themselves on the back. They managed to avoid a sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees for the second time in 2022 — good for a 4-8 record vs the Bombers after two months of action.

If this is what they have to do to keep themselves marching on, then so be it. But it’s so funny how the coin flips each year.

When the Yankees are bad, the AL East rivals poke fun, talk trash, the works. When the Yankees are good, defense-mode is activated to the tune of, “well, they’re not that good” (looking at you, Rays) and “we’re not going to back down against the Yankees, we’re not scared!” This, of course, is in response to nothing other than the fact that they lost games against the Yankees.

The Jays went for the latter on Sunday after getting embarrassed the first two games of the series. Toronto needed every last bounce and to expunge every last bit of energy they possessed to take home a 10-9 victory with the Yankees one blooper away from grabbing the lead in the top of the ninth.

Yankees fans enjoyed watching the Jays melt down on Saturday with starter Alek Manoah falling out of his rhythm and forcing the game to drag on as well as manager Charlie Montoyo getting ejected for flipping out about a call that was hardly going to have any impact on the game. Bo Bichette’s error was good, too.

But now, all of a sudden, the Jays erased a five-run deficit on Sunday to now trail the Yankees by 11 games in the division, and here’s the new attitude shift:

The Blue Jays tried to play confident after getting owned by the Yankees

"“Everybody knows the team that they have and the run that they’re on right now,” Teoscar Hernández said after the game. They’re a very good team. That’s why they’re in first place. We know that if we play good against them and can beat them, we’re in a pretty good spot.”“We don’t quit,” added manager Charlie Montoyo. “We’re going to keep fighting until the end. Many teams, I’ve seen that when something happens like today, they’ll say, ‘OK, they’re just having a good year. Let’s move on.’ We didn’t move on.”"

There’s the bar, folks. As low as it gets. “If we play good, we can beat them.” Yup, you have to play good, though! If the Yankees played good last year, they wouldn’t have had to travel to Fenway Park for the Wild Card Game.

Montoyo set it even lower, by essentially saying he used to coach rosters that would give up (???) when backed into a corner and facing a sweep against one of the league’s best teams. Whew, Toronto fans should be thankful their roster goes out there with a goal of not losing. And the fans chiming in?

Regardless of how annoying this all is, it’s the best position for the Yankees to be in. Keep winning games, let your opponents talk to a wall in the postgame, and slowly continue chalking up points in the mental edge department.

Yankees fans have long watched all of this in their rivals’ favor, so it’s time to sit back and enjoy this for as long as it lasts.

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