Red Sox 4 Blue Jays 6
The bottom of the eighth was one of those great innings for those of us who tend to think we’ve seen everything:
- Vlad led off with a ground ball single up the middle.
- Alejandro Kirk also singled.
- Kazuma Okamoto, on a one and one count popped one up along the first base line. Umpires called ‘infield fly’, meaning an out. But the Red Sox first baseman Willson (yes two Ls spellcheck) Contreras dropped the catch, but, fortunately, just on the foul side of the line, so the infield fly is erased. I’m almost sure I haven’t seen that. Given a second chance Kazuma lines a single to left and Vlad scored (it was fairly close at the plate).
- The Red Sox intentionally walk Andrés Giménez (yes, you read that right) to load the bases. His career tenth IW and second with the Jays.
- Even higher up on the ‘hard to believe chart’ Ernie Clements walks, getting an RBI.
- George Springer hits a sac fly.
- Myles Straw doubles in two more.
- Chuck McAdoo singles to give us runners on the corners.
- Justin no, Brett Bateman is up with runners on the corners and for some reason, John makes him try to sac bunt. It is 6-1, the odds of winning when you are up 6-1 in the ninth, or 7-1 in the ninth are basically the same. LET THE MAN SWING THE BAT. He pops up the bunt for an easy out.
- And back to where we started, Vlad pops out.
A great inning, and a ball being just two or three feet foul turned out to be very important (also that Contreras can’t catch, something you would expect a ball player to be able to do).
José Soriano had a very nice start. Six innings, just one earned (a Contreras home run), on four hits, two walks with four strikeouts. Very little was hit hard. He is looking like the
real thing. He came out at 90 pitches, I’d have likely let him start the seventh, but John and Pete are closer to the players than I am.
Mason Fluharty pitched a quick seventh.
Tyler Rogers a quick eighth.
Since we were up by a lot, John sat Louis Varland and had Matt Waldron start the ninth. It didn’t go well. He got one out, gave up three hits and a walk. The tying run came to the plate. And Varland came to the mound, getting a fly out and a ground out and save #26.
That’s three in a row over the Red Sox, and 9 wins in the last 13 games
We had 12 hits. McAdoo, Vlad, Okamoto and Straw each had two.
Jays of the Day: Okamoto (0.24 WPA), Soriano (0.21) Rogers (0.11) Varland (0.11), Fluharty (0.09) and for the big walk, Clement (0.08).
Other Award: Waldron (-0.10), who will be the reason why my doctor talks to me about my blood pressure.
Tomorrow, we have a day game. 3:00 Eastern. We have Payton Tolle (7-6, 3.20) vs. Max Scherzer (1-4, 7.25). Max buddy, let’s keep the bus rolling.
Win again tomorrow and I might start believing. Tomorrow might be a good day to watch from the pub.
