Blue Jays 3 at Angels 7
You didn’t really think they were going to get a sweep, right?
The Jays were in tough against Jose Soriano, off to the kind of start that only a handful of pitchers have in the last century. And it was easy to see why he’s yet to allow more than an earned run in a start with Soriano featuring a sinker that waffled in ways that a baseball thrown in the upper-90s has no business doing, a splitter that fell off the table the way a baseball thrown in the low-90s has no business doing, and for
good measure a knucklecurve with a sharp downward finish. In other words, good luck to hitters.
In that light, the Jays managed a couple of remarkable feats. First, they managed to get to Soriano for seven hits over five innings. Few of them were really well hit, but they found some holes with decent contact. But second, even with all traffic, not only were they shut out, but they didn’t even manage to get a runner to second. All were singles, and the two innings with two hits had them separated by a caught stealing and double play.
So they were winning battles, losing campaigns, but arguably didn’t lose the war as they battled Soriano enough to run up his pitch count and get him out of the game after just 5 (shutout) innings, giving themselves a shot at a soft(er) underbelly of an Angels pen which would have to bridge 4 innings.
For his part, Eric Lauer worked two very quick and efficient innings, needing just 16 pitches to work around a double on his first pitch and induce three cans of corn in the second. The rest of the outing was rockier, as Lauer’s third inning was far more laborious. Logan O’Hoppe opened with a bloop hit, with light hitting #9 Bryce Teodosio wisely opting to bunt behind him. He laid one down so well he beat it out, After striking out Zach neto he was very carful with Mike Trout and walked him to load the bases, then went 3-0 to Jo Adell before coming back to get him to fly out. It did open the scoring, but also opened a base for Jorge Soler whom he was struggled to hit the corners.
The rest of the damage consisted of a pair of solo home runs over the next two innings. Nolan Schmanuel (close enough) flined one just over the right field wall in the 4th, and Mike Trout slammed a moonshot in the 5th. That made it 3-0 entering a battle of the bullpens in the 6th.
Ryan Zeferjahn dispatched the first four batters he faced (including totally undressing Jesus Sanchez), but walked Kaz Okamoto before yielding a bloop double to Andres Gimenez to finally move a runner past first base. That brought in Chase Silseth, who got Tyler Heineman but yielded a two out smash into the right field corner from Nathan Lukes to break the goose egg and put the Jays within one. Ernie Clement grounded his third hit of the day to cash Lukes, and it was a brand new game.
Briefly, anyway. Seemingly mirroring the Angels, Tommy Nance worked a clean 6th, got the first out of the 7th, then walked Trout. Adell singled to put the go ahead run on third, so it was Fisher time. Unfortunately, he didn’t really have it, striking out Soler but then walking Soler to load the bases for Schmanuel (close enough). This time he didn’t hit it nearly as hard, but lofted a shallow double to clear the bases. Vaughn Grissom in turn flared a ball just past Clement’s grasp for another another run, and 7-3 was the eventual margin.
Jays of the Day: Clement (+0.16 WPA), Gimenez (+0.10). Lukes ended up at just 0.01 despite two hits of which one was critical.
Boo Jays: Fisher (-0.26), Vladdy (-0.12 with the 0fer), Nance (-0.10). A couple of near misses in the battery, with Heineman and Lauer at -0.09 apiece.
With the matinee today followed by the off-day, the Jays are off for the next 48 hours as they return home to take on Cleveland with Gavin Williams scheduled against Max Scherzer on Friday t the usual 7:07 EDT start.
