Royals 7 Blue Jays 4 (10 innings)
We got to extras:
Top of the 10th. Randale Grichuk on second. Seranthony Dominguez (who had been terrific since coming at the deadline) gave up a double to Kyle Isbell, scoring one. Joey Loperfido had all sorts of trouble picking up the ball, but it didn’t cost us. Dominguez hit the next batter and walked the one after to load the bases with no outs. Tyler Tolbert singled on a 2-1 pitch. That was it for Dominguez.
Tommy Nance came in. Tolbert took off for second, Kirk
threw to third (a defense against the double steal) but threw too high, and the runner scored from third, with Tolbert going to third. A sac fly made it 7-2.
Bottom of the tenth. Straw on second (not that his run matters).
Nathan Lukes singled Straw home. Two outs later, Bo walked, and Addison Barger singled, and we got the tying run to the plate. Unfortunately, Kirk ground out to short.
We led most of the game, scoring one in the second and one in the fifth.
In the first, Bo Bichette led off with a walk. Then, with two outs, Daulton Varsho walked. Ernie Clement singled to load the bases. Then Myles Straw singled, scoring Bo. Varsho was stopped at third, but Clement didn’t notice and cost us an out. The Straw single wasn’t hit deep, picked up in medium shallow left. It wouldn’t have taken a great throw to get the runner at the plate. Clement has to be watching the runner in front of him.
In the fifth, Clement led off with a walk. Straw bunted him to second (bunts early in games are STUPID). An out later, Joey Loperfido singled Clement home, but that’s all we got. Play for a single run, and you’ll get just a single run.
Chris Bassitt had a great start. Six innings, just one hit, one earned, with three walks and five strikeouts. He deserved better. His only trouble was in the fourth inning. He gave up two walks and a hit batter to load the bases with one out. A sac fly scored a run. But an Adam Frazier strikeout ended the inning.
Brendon Little had a quick seventh.
Louis Verland gave up a run in the eighth to tie the game. With two outs, Bobby Witt doubled and Vinnie Pasquantino singled him home.
Jeff Hoffman gave up a soft line single just over the infield, then a sac bunt, but got out of the ninth.
We had eight hits. Clement and Loperfido had two each. O fors go to Vlad (with a walk), Kirk (with a walk) and Varsho (with a walk).
Scoring two runs (in regulation time) isn’t enough, even with an excellent start from Bassitt.
Jays of the Game: Bassitt (.230 WPA), Hoffman (.135), and Loperfido (.108). Clement had the number, but that baserunning mistake hurt.
Other Award: Dominguez (-.459), Varland (-.146), Barger (-.128), Kirk (-.125) and Lukes (-.114). Let’s give one to Vlad too (-.082) because he really needed to get a big hit.
Tomorrow, the Jays are in Denver. Eric (6-2, 2.68) vs Tanner Gordon (2-3, 4.85).
Remind Tom that he needs to get the GameThread up early, as the story editor will be down in the evening.
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