Blue Jays 7 Phillies 5 (11 innings)
That was a game and a half, as my dad would say. Baseball doesn’t get much better.
Max Scherzer was great, thru five innings, and then gave up two solo homers in the sixth, before leaving the game. In all, he allowed 5 hits, 2 earned, 0 walks with 5 strikeouts, which moved him to tenth in all-time strikeouts (until MLB decides that Walter Johnson actually had 10 more than we previously thought). Having Max go out for the for the sixth inning may have been a mistake,
but the bullpen is working very hard lately.
Spencer Miles came in with one-out and none on, and gave up 2 runs before getting out of the inning.
Matt Waldron pitched a scoreless seventh
Braydon Fisher got through the eighth, despite a hit and a walk.
Louis Varland had a 3-up, 3-down ninth.
In regulation time we scored:
- One in the first: Vlad homered. Very nice to see.
- One in the third: Myles Straw walked. Nathan Lukes singled. An out later, Vlad singled.
- Two in the eight: With one out, Vlad walked. Then Alejandro Kirk walked. George Springer pinch ran for Kirk. An out later, Andrés Giménez double both home. Just a great swing.
We had 10 hits and 6 walks on the day. Lukes had three hits. Vlad (with a walk), Clement and Giménez had two each. Bateman, Valenzuela, Smith (with a walk)/Okamoto and Straw (with a walk) had 0 fors.
Extra innings:
Top of the ninth:
Bateman starts at second. Vlad up, ground ball right at the shortstop, one out without moving up the runner. Davis Schneider in to pinch hit for George Springer (who was just in the game to pinch run, after being pulled from the lineup with a tight shoulder). Davis walked (with him winning a challenge early in the count). Ernie Clement rolled one down the first base line, the first baseman picked up the ball, but for some reason, looked at the other bases, and then threw to the pitcher, Ernie was safe. Andrés Giménez hit a fly just deep enough to score Bateman (Bateman can run). Brandon Valenzuela struck out on a pitch the umpire called a ball but was overturned on a Phillies challenge. It was barely a strike.
Bottom of the tenth:
Trea Turner on second. Louis Varland pitching his second inning. Bryce Harper ground out moving Turner to third. Luis Arraez hit a sac fly, tie game again. Varland started Bryson Stott off with two strikes but then threw four straight balls. A wild pitch moved the runner to second, but Louis got Brandon Marsh to fly out to left.
Top of the eleventh:
Brandon Valenzuela starts at second base. Kazuma Okamoto flied out to medium right. Myles Straw ground out to first. Then Nathan Lukes homered.
Bottom of the eleventh:
Lazaro Estrada in to pitch. Brandon Marsh starting on second base. Justin Crawford popped out. A Bryan De La Cruz strikeout put us one out away from the win. Estrada, with two outs, decided to do three disengagements to move the runner to third, thinking Marsh was relaying pitches. Since that run didn’t matter, it was a good move. A fly out ended the game. Estrada gets his first career save.
Jays of the Game: Lukes (0.49, with the game winning home run, plus some great defense), Giménez (0.35, plus great defense), Estrada (0.20, just a great job), Fisher (0.11) and Varland (0.09).
Other Award: Spencer Miles (-0.27), Okamoto (-0.23), Bateman (-0.16, but he motored on that sac fly in the 10th), Valenzuela (-0.14) and Straw (-0.13)
There was some amazing defense on both sides of the ball. Plus some awful defense out of the Phillies first basemen (Schwarber and Bohm).
Tomorrow the Jays try for the sweep. It is a 1:30 start time. I have tennis 11-1 tomorrow, but a quick shower and I’ll likely make it for the first pitch, perhaps with a beer in my hand. Starters tomorrow: Shane Bieber (3-2, 5.11) and Jesús Luzardo (10-5, 3.36). The Jays will be going for the sweep.
