Blue Jays 6 Orioles 5
Back to .500.
Bullpen days are a terrible thing to watch. One of my lines is that if you use a lot of relievers, you are likely to find the one that doesn’t have it on that day.
And the Jays did find that guy. The second pitcher into the game, Austin Voth, had nothing, but with the guys who weren’t available, he had to throw some innings. He gave up 3 home runs, 5 hits, 5 earned with 4 walks. He had a terrible time finding the strike zone and anytime he came close the Orioles hit it hard. I thought it was game over, but the offense surprised us.
Beyond that:
- Adam Macko opened and worked his way through 5 outs, giving up 3 singles with a strikeout. He wasn’t great, but he didn’t give up a run.
- Connor Seabold (I keep typing Seaborn, I liked West Wing back in the day. If I thought he was going to stay around long, I’d call him Rob Lowe) got 5 outs without allowing a base runner (helped along by a successful Brandon Valenzuela challenge).
- Mason Fluharty was terrific, getting the last out of the seventh and all three outs in the eighth.
- And Braydon Fisher picked up his first save his MLB career, despite a two-out Ernie Clement error (on a very easy play). I made have sworn very very loudly, and with windows open in the house, several neighbours likely heard, but then they know me, they’ll just think ‘Something bad happened in the Jays game’.
On offense, we did nothing for the first six innings, just two hits, a one-out triple by Daulton Varsho in the second (he was stranded) and a one-out double by Valenzuela (also stranded). It looked like it was going to be one of those days where we just wouldn’t score. We thought that Trevor Rogers was going to get a complete game on 60 pitches. But we got to him in that seventh inning.
Vladimir Guerrero started off the seventh with a single and Kazuma Okamoto homered (108 mph, 387 feet). Varsho followed with a double and Charles McAdoo homered (his first MLB hit, 369 feet).
Suddenly it was 5-4 and I was hopeful.
Then, in the eighth, George Springer and Clement started it with singles and Vlad doubled them home, giving us our first lead of the day. It would have been nice to score Vlad and give the bullpen a little bit of room for error, but no. And, in the top of the ninth, Nathan Lukes started the inning with a double and again we couldn’t score him. But we had faith in Fisher.
We had 10 hits. Vlad and Varsho had 2 each. The only starters without a hit were Myles Straw (but he was pinch hit for after 2 at bats) and Yohendrick Piñango who needed break from carrying the team for the last while.
Jays of the Day: Vlad (0.34 WPA), Fisher (0.19) and Fluharty (0.15). Let’s give an honorable mention to McAdoo and Okamoto for the home runs.
Other Award: Voth (-0.26) and Piñango (-0.10). And an Honorable Other Award to Clement for that ninth inning error that shot up my blood pressure 40 points. He made the play on the next ground ball hit right at him.
Also making an error tonight was Vlad, who seemed to misread a popup, but got there, then had the ball pop out of his glove. Joe, in the analyst spot, said something about Vlad being so good at popups and I was thinking ‘name me an infielder who isn’t good at chasing popups’. I mean, there are pretty easy plays, I can catch a popup. Oh well, it didn’t cost us.
I thought McAdoo (or Chuck to those of us who are close friends) looked good at second. He made a very tough play. It is great to see him get that first hit, first home run. Also good to see anyone not named Sosa at second base.
We have game three of four in Baltimore tomorrow. It is a 4:00 Eastern start. Trey Yesavage (2-2,2.25) tries to get us above .500. Brandon Young (3-1, 3,47) starts for the O’s.