That was a little better. Spencer Miles continues to impress, stretching out to 4.1 innings this time while stifling the Marlins offence with a steady stream of induced ground balls. The offence was distributed, with seven Jays sharing the 12 hits and three different guys going deep.
Braydon Fisher worked as the opener today. Otto Lopez hit a grounder to Kazuma Okamoto at third that Okamoto threw away. It was initially called a two base error but eventually revised to a hit and an error. Ultimately
it didn’t matter, as Fisher got out of the inning without Lopez advancing farther.
Spencer Miles took over beginning in the second. He walked lead off man Connor Norby, but retired the next nine Marlins in order, racking up three strikeouts. Jakob Marsee was the next fish to reach, with a ground ball single across the shift to lead off the fifth. Marsee stole second and took third when Brandon Valenzuela’s throw skipped into centre field. An infield single by Heriberto Hernandez plated the Marlins’ first run of the night. A Santoja line single put two on, but a trio of ground outs got him out of the jam with the lead.
Miles would face one batter to being the sixth, getting Lopez to ground out. He went 4.1 innings as the bulk guy, allowing one run on three hits and a walk. Adam Macko took the reins and retired the next two batters.
The offence, meanwhile, was on Sandy Alcantara. He was also on them, hitting four batters. George Springer and Daulton Varsho opened the first with back to back singles. Those two runners were stranded, but Ernie Clement got Toronto on the board in the bottom of two, leading off with a homer that was the highest pitch hit out of the park in the majors this season. Clement also has the lowest, which is on brand. They added a second run in the third. Varsho got his second hit of the night, and Jesus Sanchez moved him to third with a double off the centre field wall. Kazuma Okamoto hit a hard grounder that ate up third baseman Javier Santoja and deflected into left field for an RBI single. They went quietly in the fourth.
Alcantara hit Springer with a high change up in the fifth, and then one batter alter spiked a curveball off Sanchez’ toe. He got Okamoto swinging to prevent the Jays from capitalizing, though.
They broke it open in the bottom of the sixth. Yohendrick Pinango lead off with a home run. Two batters later, Valenzuela singled, Lenyn Sosa was hit by a pitch, Springer singled to drive Valenzuela home, Varsho walked to load the bases, and Sanchez emptied them with a grand slam lined into the second deck in right field. That made it 8-1, a score that would stand the rest of the way. Alcantara hit his final batter, Okamoto, and was finally pulled from the game. I don’t think any of it was intentional. There’s no bad blood between these teams, and all of the pitches were off speed or breakers. Still, the Jays earned their eight set the hard way today.
Cade Gibson punched out Pinango to end the sixth. Yariel Rodriguez worked a clean seventh, while Gibson worked around a Valenzuela single in the bottom half of that inning and a Springer hit in the bottom of eight. Tanner Andrews finished it out for the Jays, giving up an infield single in the eighth and a pair of walks in the ninth but punching out Hernandez for his first career MLB strikeout to end the game.
Jays of the Day: Miles (0.15), Springer (0.11), Sanchez (0.11)
Less so: Nobody!
The series wraps up tomorrow with a day game at 1:07pm et. Eury Perez (3-6, 4.91) will go for the Marlins, while Kevin Gausman (4-3, 3.23) reps the Jays.
