Rockies 1 at Blue Jays 2 (10)
It was one of those games where the starting pitcher was going to have to be almost flawless for his team to win. Kevin Gausman was up to the task and did his damnedest in holding the Rockies at bay for six innings, a but bullpen wobbles and a lack of hitting, first timely and then outright, undermined the effort as the Blue Jays fell in 10 innings.
Gausman was especially dominant over the first four innings, almost perfect really as he set the first 12 batters in order.
The fastball was popping and well located, the splitter diving off the plate as he struck out six of those and a liner to third the only time the Rockies got close to touching him. Hunter Goodman had a particularly rough time, befuddled as Gausman dispatched him.
He was more human the last couple ininngs, as Ezequiel Tovar battled him for a long at-bat and lined a single up the middle to start the 5th. Hesitation on a roller allowed Tovar to beat the throw the second and create a real jam, though Gausman extricated himself with a couple strikeouts. After another hard hit in the 6th, he got another pair of strikeouts to end the inning in double digits for the second time, finishing 6 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.
The bats were able to create opportunities early against Kyle Freeland, but couldn’t land decisive blows and largely squandered the chance to build a substantial lead:
- A lead off single in the 2nd from Okamotot was erased by a Kirk GIDP sanchwiched around another single
- Myles Straw blooped a single leading off the 3rd, scoring on a one-out Davis Schneider single after a Springer walk. Vladdy was (barely) hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out and really set up a big inning, but Okamoto struck out and Kirk flared out.
- Another Straw single in the 4th put two one after a HBP, but advanced no further.
From that moment in fact, the bats were essentially shut down, managing just two singles over the last 6.2 innings, after eight of the first 17 batters reached over the first 3.1 innings.
So Gausman exited clinging to a slim 1-0 lead. Tyler Rogers was first out and uncharacteristically fallible, allowing a pair of hard singles. In fact, only Addison Barger’s arm (or the threat thereof) kept a run off the board as TJ Rumfield held up at first after smashing a ball to the wall and would likely have scored from second with two out on the latter single.
The highwire act could onyl last so long however. Tommy Nance was next for the 8th, and it wasn’t his day either . Nine hitter Kyle Karros walked leading off, yielding to Jake McCarthy who stole scored in quick order on a single. Another walk, wild pitch, and stolen base created a real mess but John Schneider inflicted a little dose of the Flu(harty), whose two strikeouts prevented the Rockies from taking the lead.
Jeff Hoffman was equally as on point in the 9th, sharp sliders dispatching the Rockies to strikeout the side in order. With Braydon Fisher and Louis Varland down from previous heavy use, that left Brendon Little, and well….
Honestly, he wasn’t even terrible, but a sharp ground ball up the middle plated the do ahead run. For their part, Springer popped out on the second pitch in the bottom of the 10th before Nathan Lukes battled Jimmy Herget to 12 pitches before ultimately rolling one over. Vladdy cracked a ball, but to dead CF where it was easily caught and so it goes.
Jays of the Day: Gausman (+.36 WPA), Fluharty (+0.25), Hoffman (+0.14), Davis Schneider (+0.12)
Boo Jays: Nance (-0.40) , Vlad (-0.22), Kirk (-0.14), Jimenez (-0.13). Lukes (-0.13) had the number but not giving him one for that 10th inning AB.
Tomorrow, the Jays are now off, with the White Sox home opener now scheduled for 2:10 EDT with Dylan Cease taking the hill against his former team.
