Blue Jays 4 Angels 5
Up by two, going into the bottom of the ninth. Jeff Hoffman in.
The Jays keep finding more inventive and more frustrating ways to lose. Hoffman walks Kyren Paris. Then Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel singled. A strikeout gave me hope. But then a grounder down the third base line scored all three base runners. Jonaton Clase misplayed the ball in the left field corner. I don’t know if he would have been able to stop the runner from scoring first if he had come up with it clean, but it didn’t help.
Once again, the Jays should have scored more.
We didn’t score until the sixth inning. Vlad hit a one-out double and Anthony Santander followed with a single, just deep enough to score Vlad. A wild pitch moved Santander to second, but George Springer struck out and Alejandro Kirk ground out.
We scored three more runs in the next inning. Ernie Clement started the inning with a double. Andrés Giménez tried to bunt him to third, but he put down a nice bunt and beat the throw to first. Giménez slowed near the bag and left the game before the bottom of the inning with right quad tightness. We had runners on the corners. Myles Straw followed with a single scoring one. Next, Jonatan Clase bunted and he beat out the throw to first, so we had bases loaded (pretty bad bunt defense both time, it wasn’t like they were trying to hide the fact they were bunting). Bo Bichette singled to bring two home.
You might expect more runs if there are no outs and runners on first and second with the two, three, and four hitters coming up. Nope. Vlad struck out. Santander ground out. Springer struck out. More runs would have been nice.
We also had two on with one out in the eighth, but Straw hit into a double play. It was a very nice play by Angels third baseman Yoán Moncada, grabbing the ball behind the third base bag, stepping on it and throwing a strike to first.
We had 12 hits, so we should have scored more than 4 runs. Vlad, Santander, and Straw each had two. Springer had a rough day, going 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.
José Berríos wasn’t sharp, but he made the pitches when needed. In six innings he allowed five hits, with five walks, but had nine strikeouts. He gave up a home run to lead off the seventh, and that was it for him.
Yariel Rodríguez pitched the rest of the seventh and got the first out of the eighth.
Brendon Little came in with one out and a runner on first. He wasn’t sharp. He hit Yoán Moncada with a ball that bounced well in front of the plate. And then he threw a wild pitch, bouncing the pitch again. But he followed that with two strikeouts.
Hoffman’s second bad outing in a row.
Jays of the Day: Santaner (.122 WPS), Little (.099) and Berrios (.084). Give an honourable mention to Rodriguez.
The Other Award: Hoffman (-.908) and Springer (-.175).
Tomorrow we have Chris Bassitt (2-2, 2.95) vs. José Soriano (2-4, 3.83).
I wonder how we will lose that one.