Six in a row, and what a stupid way to get there. The losing streak now stands at six. These last two series were important, as Houston and Texas are significant rivals for the third wildcard spot. It’s hard not to conclude that the Jays have shown that they can’t hang with even badly scuffling teams like that. The rotation remains a tire fire, they were 0-for with runners in scoring position, and Vladimir Guerrero jr.’s OPS now starts with a 6.
Other than that, though, things are fine.
It looked like
it was going to be another disaster outing for Shane Bieber. Joc Pederson deposited his first pitch of the afternoon into the right field bleachers, digging the Jays into the earliest possible hole. A single and a pair of walks loaded the bases with just one out. He escaped the jam with the help of some nifty fielding by Kazuma Okamoto, who went home after fielding an Ezequiel Duran grounder to get the runner at the plate and prevent the Rangers from scoring. He got more help in the second. Elias Diaz hit a hard line single to lead off. Alejandro Osune cracked a liner of his own, 101mph off the bat, but Vladmir Guerrero jr. made a great catch and dove back to the bag for the unassisted double play. Yet another gold star play by Okamoto, diving to catch a Pederson liner that would have been into the gap, got him out of the inning. The Biebs settled down at that point, working around one base runner each in the third and fourth and striking out the side in the fifth. He struggled again early in the fifth, allowing a walk and a single while recording one out, and was pulled from the game at that point. It wasn’t a good outing, but the three inning stretch in the middle was at least proof that he can still get it done at times, and he left the game within range.
Adam Macko took over. He walked the bases loaded, and then gave up a line single that scored an inherited runner, but stopped the damage at 2-0 with a double play ball. He got the first two outs of the seventh as well, issuing a walk and having Brandon Nimmo reach on a fielding error by Ernie Clement. Jeff Hoffman took over to strike out Jake Burger to preserve the 2-0 score.
Meanwhile, the offence was anemic early again. George Springer and Nathan Lukes both singled to lead off the bottom of the first, but a fly out, a fielder’s choice that got Springer at home, and a strike out prevented them from capitalizing. They went in order in the second, while in the third an Andres Gimenez walk was erased by a double play. A Daulton Varsho single was stranded in the fourth, while a Gimenez single and Springer reach-on-error were left on in the fifth. Kumar Rocker retired the side again in the sixth. In total, he scattered five hits and a walk over 6.0 scoreless innings, striking out five. Given two errors behind him, it was an especially impressive outing.
Cole Winn worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh for Texas. They finally got on the board off of him in the bottom of the eighth, following a scoreless top half by Hoffman. George Springer reached with a one out ground ball single, and Nathan Lukes tied the game with a two run shot to deep right field.
The tie would prove short lived, though. Louis Varland struck out his first two batters in the top of the ninth, but then Josh Jung lined a double. He was replaced with pinch runner Jared Kelenic. Varland spiked a ball in the dirt that popped up, deflected off Alejandro Kirk’s mask, and all the way up into the netting above the Jays dugout. Kirk had no idea where it was, and Kelenic was able to cruise around and score pretty easily on the rare two base wild pitch. They’ve done a lot of losing lately, but I have to respect their commitment to innovating in the space.
Tyler Alexander came on to lock down the save for the Rangers, retiring the Jays in order to secure the four game sweep.
Jays of the Day: Lukes (0.35), Bieber (0.10, but realistically this is a shared award for his infield)
Less so: Guerrero (-0.13), Okamoto (-0.15, although the defence arguably earns him a pass), Varsho (-0.13), Clement (-0.16), Kirk (-0.12), Varland (-0.30)
We’re mercifully done with the Rangers for now. Next up we have an ineptitude-off between the Jays and the Mets. Game one goes tomorrow at 7:07pm ET. Sean Manaea (1-2, 4.87) represents the visitors, while Trey Yesavage (3-3, 3.56) goes for the home team.
