Blue Jays 6 Red Sox 2
Why does nothing come easy?
This is the second time Garcia has come into a cold game and has had trouble. But then, who throws well in the cold? I don’t know; two outings seem to fall under a small sample size.
Well, José Berríos, he was amazing. 7 innings, just 4 hits, 1 earned, 3 walks with 2 strikeouts. He was in charge all the way. He came out at 88 pitches, but with how cold it was, I was good with him coming out.
Anyway, Garcia coming in with a four-run lead in the eighth. He gets Ceddanne Rafaela to ground to short, but Will Wagner made a bad throw to first. Harsh to blame him with the ball so wet, but it was an error at a bat moment. Garcia walked the next batter. He was all around the zone. It could have been a strikeout if he had gotten the call on one right at the top of the zone. A line out to center followed (nice catch by Nathan Lukes). An Alex Bregman fly out gave us two outs, but Triston Casas singled, bringing a run in and the tying run to the plate. Fortunately, Garcia got Trevor Story to strike out on an excellent pitch with a full count.
Jeff Hoffman pitched the ninth, even though we were up by four. But then he warmed up when we were up by three. Once he is warm, bring him in. And I hate managing to the stat. If it were three runs, he’d be in for the save. Anyway, he had no drama inning, strikeouts, ground out, and fly out on nine pitches.
On offense, 13 hits, only one extra base hit, a double, but 6 for 13 with RISP.
We scored:
- Two in the third: Bo led off with a double (he was robbed of a double in the first inning, hitting one to the short wall in right that center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela made a terrific sliding catch on). This one was 109.2 mph (the other was 102.8). Vlad walked. Anthony Santander grounded out to first, moving up the runners. And Andrés Giménez hit a sac fly. Next, George Springer singled in Vlad.
- One in the fifth: Vlad singled to lead off, but Santander hit into a double play. Giménez walked and stole second, then scored on another single by Springer.
- Two in the seventh: Vlad led off with a single again. Santander struck out, and Giménez forced Vlad at second. But then Andrés stole second. And Springer (again) singled him home.
- One in the ninth: Santander led off with a single. An out later, Springer (his fourth hit of the game), hit a ground ball hard off pitcher Robert Stock’s leg, bouncing towards first for a single. Kirk lined out hard (106.5 mph) but right at the second baseman.
Then, we had some controversy. Lukes singled to center, Santander scored. Springer went home, but the throw went to third and (just barely) got Wagner out. Two mistakes. Springer has to get home faster than Wagner gets to third, but Wagner should never make the third out at third. Never. Jays appealed, but replays showed the out happened before the run.
13 hits and 5 walks, we likely should have scored more, and some power would have been nice, but it was very cold 2 C at game time, with freezing rain, so we can be forgiven for not hitting any out.
Springer had the four hits. Vlad, Kirk (it was nice to see him hitting the ball hard), and Lukes had two hits. The only starters not to get a hit were Giménez (but two walks, two steals, two runs, one RBI) and Roden (0 for 4), but he made a nice play off the left-field wall and threw out Alex Bergman going for second base. We needed the challenge to get it right, but that was a great throw and a great Giménez tag.
We had some nice defense. Wagner made a great throw from third with two outs in the first that saved a run. Lukes made a nice diving catch in center, again saving a run. Bo and Giménez had some nice plays up the middle.
Of note: Lukes cost us an out on a ground ball to the pitcher. On his slide into second, he had his left arm out and made (very light) contact with SS Trevor Story’s knee. It didn’t change anything, but they gave the Red Sox a second out for interference. I thought it was rather ticky-tacky, but ok.
Jays of the Day: Berrios (.314 WPA) and Springer (.308). I’m all for Springer moving into the cleanup spot.
Other Award: Roden had the number (-.136), but he had that throw from left for the out, so I’m letting him off the hook. But let’s give one to Santander (-.093) for the 1 or 4.
Tomorrow, we play at 6:45 Eastern again. We have Easton Lucus going against Garrett Crochet. It will be cold again.