Blue Jays 2 Rays 3
Things administrators do that make Tom want to drink…
Trent Thornton enters the game to start the fifth (it wasn’t like the Rays were crushing Yusei Kikuchi, but whatever). Thornton pitches a 3-up, 3-down inning on 11 pitches. It looks great. It’s what we jokingly refer to as a long man, and we don’t let the sixth one begin.
Because? Because we have to look for the guy who doesn’t have one today.
We found it. Adam Cimber didn’t look good and gave up the go-ahead streak, with just one out.
Mayza comes in (too late) and gets us out of the inning in 7 pitches. Again it looks great. But we have to get someone else for the seventh.
Phelps did a good job. One and done in 14 fields. Trevor Richards pitched a scoreless eighth.
Anyway….Kikuchi looked great in the first with 2 strikeouts. And a good second, against 2 strikeouts. He had some trouble in the third, giving up a run on a hit batter, single, walk and sack, but he kept the Twins running.
And he gave up one more in the fourth. A line drive single and a pop single that fell between Bo Bichett (who had a nice effort) and Raimel Tapia. A fly out and grounder scored the run, but if the popup was a little shorter or a little deeper, it would have been out of the inning.
In 4 innings, 3 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.
I understand why John Schneider is a little worried about Kikuchi on the mound, but he was only at 74 pitches. He only gave up 2 runs (one due to an uncaught popup). I would like to at least start the fifth. We play every day for a while. Why use the entire bullpen?
Especially when you have a deep aversion to using a reliever for more than one inning.
Nothing would have mattered if we could hit.
Just 4 hits and 2 walks today against 5 Rays pitchers.
The only Blue Jay to hit well was Teoscar Hernandez, who drove in our two runs with a double (just a few feet short of what would have been a three-run homer) in the first and a solo homer in the first. fourth
Aside from Teoscar’s two hits, we had a double by Lourdes Gurriel to start the game and a single by Vladimir Guerrero in the eighth. Vlad also stole second to score the tying run at second off Alejandro Kirk (who didn’t have the best at-bat, swinging at head level and then swinging at a pitch off the plate).
The four players in the bottom of the order went 0 for 12. And Bo went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. It’s really time to get him out of the cleaning spot.
Jay of the Day: Teoscar (.201 WPA).
Suckage: Cimber (-.218), Bichette (-.184), Tapia (-.158), Chapman (-.139, crushed a ball, but missed) and Kirk (-.101).
The Jays head to Minneapolis for a four-game series against the Twins. Alek Manoah (11-5, 2.43) vs. Sonny Gray (6-3, 3.41) will start tomorrow night. It’s a weird start at 7:40am eastern.