Blue Jays 5 Rays 1
Our first win in months. Not months? Feels like months.
Just a terrific start from Hyun Jin Ryu. The one run he gave up was a wall scrapper homer, just fair, down the right-field line. A big 333 feet, but placed perfectly. The Jays had 8 flyouts that went further than that.
Ryu went 4.2, allowed 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk with 3 strikeouts. In the fifth, he gave up a 1-out walk and got a strikeout, and Charlie pulled him. Likely a good move. Let him go out on the strikeout and save him from facing the top of the order again.
Yimi Garcia got the last out of the fifth and pitched through the sixth, despite a single and a hit batter.
Tim Mayza pitched a quick seventh. Adam Cimber started the eight off with a walk (just what you want to see when you get the lead on your first 4-run inning in recent memory. But he got the next three batters out.
Jordan Romano gave up a leadoff single but got out of the ninth with a flyout, pop out and a strikeout. Not a save, but nice to see him have a good inning after blowing a save during his last outing.
After the first inning, when the Jays loaded the bases but only scored one run, you could be forgiven for thinking, ‘here we go again’. Vlad and Teoscar singled, and Bo walked, all with 1-out. Santiago Espinal hit a sac fly, and that would be all our scoring until the eighth inning.
Teoscar started the eight with a home run to dead center (414 feet). Singles from Santiago and Lourdes set up a 3-run homer from Danny Jansen in his first game back for the IL. I really missed you, Danny.
We only had 7 hits on the day, and none after the first until Espinal singled to lead off the sixth.
Teoscar and Santiago had 2 hits each. New leadoff hitter Matt Chapman went 0 for 5 with a strikeout. Also having 0 fors were Bo (with a walk), Kirk, and Ramiel Tapia (with a walk). But we did have a ton of warning track play balls. The Jays had 8 outs hit more than 300 feet. If the game was decided on the total distance of hit balls, it would have been a blowout.
Jays of the Day: Teoscar (.278 WPA, 2 for 5, with the home run), Ryu (.109), Garcia (.097) and Jansen (.099, plus doing a good job behind the plate with Ryu). Espinal deserves an honourable mention for his 2 hits and a couple of nice plays with the glove.
Suckage: Chapman (-.120, but he started a nice double play, tagging a runner going from second to third, then throwing to second) and Kirk (-.117).
Tomorrow we have a 1:30 Eastern start. Alek Manoah (4-0, 1.75) vs. Jeffrey Spings (1-1, 2.12). We could win a series in the House that Orange Juice built.