Red Sox 1 Blue Jays 8
That turned into a surprisingly comfortable win.
I didn’t think Eric Lauer looked great today, lots of deep fly balls finding gloves, but he only allowed one run in his 4.1 innings, on a Willson (who puts two L’s in Wilson?) Contreras home run. He gave up 5 hits, with 1 walk and 1 strikeout.
He came out in the fifth, after giving up three one-out singles. He wasn’t happy coming out, I could read his lips and he said ‘bull’ something when coming off the mound. I was on John’s side. Eric seemed to be getting a lot of fly balls, we didn’t need one to become a grand slam, and make a game out of this.
Braydon Fisher came in and got a line out to short that became a double play with a throw to second. The runner on second did come off the bag too far, but I don’t think it would have mattered if he stayed closer. Fisher pitched the sixth as well, getting five outs, with just one hit against and a strikeout.
Tommy Nance got the first two outs of the seventh, giving up a single and John took him out to have Joe Mantiply come in to face the lefty Roman Anthony. I guess we have to use our quota of relievers in every game, but, up six, I’d have left Nance in.
Spencer Miles pitched the eighth and loaded the bases with one out, but got out of it with the help of a pretty nice play by Okamoto. He came back out for the ninth (good job, John) and had a cleaning inning.
We had a pretty good game with the bats. We scored:
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Three in the third: Singles from Brandon Valenzuela, Jesús Sánchez and Vladimir Guerrero loaded the bases with singles. Kazuma Okomoto singled home two. A walk to Daulton Varsho loaded the bases again. Yohendrick Pinango singled home Vlad. Okamoto tried to score but was out at the plate. I was ok with the send with two outs. It was pretty close, but Kazuma isn’t fast.
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Two in the fourth: Valenzuela walked and Ernie Clement hit his first home run of the season.
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Two in the fifth: Vlad started it off with a single. An out later, Varsho was hit by pitch. And then George Springer, pinch-hitting, singled in Vlad. Myles Straw followed with a sac fly.
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One in the eighth: Valenzuela homered.
Vlad had another good day with the bat, going 3 for 3 with a walk, raising his average to .358. More homers would be nice, but that seems like nit picking. Valenzuela had two hits, single and homer, with a walk.
Clement, Sánchez, Okomoto, Varsho, Pinango, Springer, and Valenzuela had a hit each.
Ernie Clement made an excellent play, in the fourth inning, making a nice pickup of a ball on the third base side of second and then made very nice one hop throw to first, ending the inning. And Valenzuela challenged three pitches, called balls, and got them overturned. One was just at the time of the zone, the other was easily inside the zone. Good job Brandon. Valenzuela also had a nice play on a ‘swinging bunt’ that ended up just in front of getting to the ball and not rushing the throw to first. He looked very relaxed. He impressed me, I’d rather he get most of the playing time until Alejandro Kirk comes back.
Jays of the Day go to: Okamoto (.17 WPA) and Fisher (.13). I’ll give honourable mention to Clement (homer and nice defensive play), Valenzuela (single, homer, walk and three successful challenges) and Vlad (for the 3 for 3).
No one had the number for the ‘Other Award’. Giménez had the low mark at -0.4.
Speaking of not being happy about being taken out, Brayan Bello came out of the game with 2 out in the fourth after giving up a walk and Bello was not happy to be pulled. When Clement homered a few seconds later, he was even less happy. But he really didn’t pitch great, 3.2 innings, 6 hits, 4 earned (one after he left the game), 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.
Tomorrow the Jays are in Minnesota to play the Twins. Kevin Gausman (2.57) vs. Bailey Ober (3.94).
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