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Barger has hit three home runs in the first post-season of his career for a Blue Jays team that's grown together and exploded together in this season still so hard to comprehend and yet celebrate.
Early on in his time with the Jays, a broadcaster referred to Barger as Bam Bam. At the time, he was asked if he grew up as a Flintstones guy. He said he didn't, but his parents did.
The Barger family had two dogs -- one named Bam Bam, one named Pebbles, both characters in the well-known cartoon.
And now, here's the name Barger should remember most: Jett Lukes. His birth almost seven months ago got him to the major leagues.
The hit that changed the Blue Jays season came on a Wednesday night in Texas in late May. The Jays weren't hitting a lick at the time. The new hitting coach, David Popkins, hadn't altered the Jays considerably in the first third of the major-league season. Then Bo Bichette came to the plate as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning of a 0-0 tie game. Understand this: The Jays had scored four runs in their previous five games. They were two games under .500. They weren't looking anything like a contender. But Bichette's pinch-hit home run gave the Jays a 2-0 win and unlocked what was to come the rest of the season ... The first third of the season, the Jays averaged 3.7 runs per game. This coming after being one of the lowest scoring teams in baseball in 2024 and adding Anthony Santander to potentially change that. After the Bichette home run, the Jays averaged 5.5 runs per game the rest of the way and went from playing .481 baseball in the first 54 games to .629 the rest of the season. Heading into Game 2 of the World Series, the Jays are playing .666 ball in the post-season, averaging 6.8 runs a game. A long way from the 3.7 averaged in the first 54 games ... Statistically, Bichette is the purest hitter of pitches 97 mph and faster in the American League. Numbers way better than everyone including Aaron Judge ... The Jays took on a huge contract when they dealt for Andres Gimenez -- and it will be expensive in the years to come -- and they took on a surprising salary when they dealt with Cleveland again for Myles Straw (in order to acquire cash to try to sign pitcher Roki Sasaki, now a Dodger). Not sure now where this club would be without all of the Cleveland pickups: Gimenez, Straw, and starter Shane Bieber. In addition to playing superb defence, the normally light-hitting Gimenez has two homers and nine RBIs in the playoffs, which have been better production numbers than either Mookie Betts or Freddie Freeman ... Kudos to whoever worked on the pre-game festivities and national anthems at the Rogers Centre for Game 1 of the series. Rarely have Toronto and the Blue Jays looked better on television and in the stadium live ... The kid, Trey Yesavage, made three regular-season starts in his fifth different league of the season, making him one of the least experienced World Series starters in history. Probably the least experienced Game 1 starter. A few years ago, Dylan Lee started in the World Series for the Atlanta Braves without making a regular-season start. He was used as an opener, though. Different circumstances ... Yesavage is not the most famous alumnus of East Carolina University. That title belongs to Sandra Bullock ... Bichette is a free agent this winter. He says he wants to stay with the Jays. The starting price for signing him is likely in the $300-million range long-term. And just in case, the Jays have Gimenez to play shortstop if necessary for the next five seasons ... For all the money the Dodgers spend on roster construction, shouldn't they have done a better job at setting up their bullpen? ... George Springer's OPS last season was .674. Before that .732 and the year before that .814. That's what is called a dropping stock. So who was expecting .959 this year, behind only Judge and Shohei Ohtani? Anyone? Bueller?