John Axford

The Orioles', uh, magic number is one, so they are just about out of here as well.

Uh, for the first hour, though, and probably for the last time this year, unless the Jays win six games in a row and get some help, is our pal John Axford.

John, how we doing?

Uh, good.

[laughs]

That is the bit that he is doing here.

That was John Axford.

We're gonna take a break.

The

reason that I had that hat is because John Axford wore that hat in the clubhouse once.

I'm like, that's a pretty slick hat.

I got a farted and I did.

I have the stuff.

The manager has the belief in me." And that year you guys go out and sign a guy in John Axford.

Yeah.

Who you've talked about how it was really pivotal in your career.

And so it was like the question going into the off-season was like, "Hey, are they, are, are they gonna try and fill these holes internally with like, say, guys like Brian and myself, or are we gonna sign some guys?" And, you know, bullpens are always kind of that like, "Hey, we're gonna go sign a bunch of guys.

We'll get some non-roster invites into camp, and we'll see who sticks," right? And, but they...

When they, when they went and signed a, signed a guy like John Axford, it was clear like why they went and signed him, right? Like, they were gonna sign this guy to close games, to finish games.

And so it was like...

We will talk to Ricky Romero later in the show as well.

Before we do any of that, though, our pal Ben Shulman, voice of the Toronto Blue Jays on the Blue Jays Radio Network, joins us.

Ben, how we doing, buddy?

Doing great.

Um, so this is, uh, a back to back to back home run, and it hasn't happened since 2012 when it was Colby Rasmus and José Bautista and Edwin Encarnación, and he's gonna hate that I brought this up.

But those back to back to back home runs were off of Tyler Thornburg.

And later in that game, a couple of home runs, uh, to swing the game, off our pal John Axford.

Uh, the Blue Jays hit I believe six total in that, uh, in that game.

They made the splash move and got Grinke.

John Axford was almost untouchable that year.

He got Cy Young votes.

You had Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder.

We'll talk to Anthony Castrovince, check in on those Guardians.

But for the first hour, we have our pal, John Axford in here.

John, how we doing, buddy?

Good, Blake.

Yeah.

Uh, so nominative determinism is a, a literary thing that, uh, your name will determine your future.

It was-- It's as if John Axford were a lumberjack instead of a pitcher-

Should've been

For our purposes, the playoff odds drop from about 17% to 10%.

Um, how, how deflating do you think that feels? Um, it, you know, I was at the game a- and ran into John Axford for a couple innings yesterday and he kinda mentioned like that, that can, that can hurt in a room because, you know, that's n- not that you're gonna win 100% of those games, but that's one that you probably wanna have, and you wanna start this home stand and this 30 game stretch on a good foot.

Um, yeah, how, how deflating is one like that, do you think, for that room?

Yeah, I mean, it, it's tough because I think the Blue Jays probably were feeling pretty good about their previous stretch where they were winning series against like Boston and the Rays, um, the Yankees at home, and then they dropped the, the series to the Yankees on the road, but that, you know, you can understand that.