Mariners 1 Blue Jays 8
Today’s game was soooo much more fun than yesterday’s.
First, Dylan Cease was excellent—six innings, just four hits, one walk and eight strikeouts. The run against was a home run by the second batter of the day. We were a little worried for a moment. But just a moment. He came out at 92 pitches. I’m happy that John didn’t have him go 100+
And we scored early and often. It’s been 10 days since we’ve scored 8 runs (10 really, against the Rays). Today we scored:
- Three in the first: Brett Bateman singled and stole second. Nathan Lukes ground out to the pitcher, who tagged him, but hurt something while doing it. They talked for a bit, but left him in the game. Vladimir Guerrero followed with a double down the right-field line, scoring Bateman. George Springer singled. Jesús Sánchez was hit by pitch. Kazuma Okamoto drove Vlad in with a sac fly. And Andrés Giménez singled home Springer.
- Two in the fifth: Lukes homered and an out later Springer homered.
- One in the sixth: Okamoto homered.
- Two in the seventh: Lukes walked, and an out later, Springer singled. And Myles Straw singled, bringing in run #7. Okamoto reached on an error by J.P. Crawford, bringing in the 8th run.
We had 11 hits, but,
even better, we had 3 home runs. Springer had 4 hits, bringing his average up to .251 from .243. Bateman had 2 hits. Sanchez (0 for 2, hit batter), Clement (0 for 4, k), and Valenzuela (0 for 3, walks) had the 0-fors.
Valenzuela made a great throw to second to catch Randy Arozarena stealing in the third inning, when the game was still close.
Jays of the Day: Cease (0.19 WPA) and Springer (0.13).
No one gets the Other Award. The low mark was Valenzuela at -0.02, but then the caught stealing would have erased that.
Tomorrow, we have a 3:00 Eastern start time. Kade Anderson, making his second MLB start, goes for the Mariners. He went 5.2 innings, giving up 3 earned runs in his first start. José Soriano (1-1, 4.22 in four starts with the Jays) is our guy.
