It wasn’t the triumphant return we’d hoped for from the Biebs. When a command guy like Shane Bieber isn’t hitting his spots, it can turn into batting practice pretty quickly. That’s about what happened here. He was catching too much of the plate too often, and Houston’s hitters teed off. Combined with the rare Tyler Rogers bad outing and Braydon Fisher blowing a great outing on his second to last batter, it wasn’t the pitching staff’s best day.
The offence, meanwhile, took the typical Blue Jays tack
of getting lots of men on but not bothering to score them early, before putting together a nice run late to take the lead. They went cold again at that point, though, failing to score the Manfred man from third with one out in the 10th.
All around a pretty disappointing game. Yet again, .500 seems to be a hard barrier for this team.
The Astros got to Shane Bieber right off the bat. His third pitch of the afternoon was lined for a double by Jose Altuve, and two batters later an Isaac Paredes single brough him home to give the Astros an early 1-0 lead. He got through the second inning cleanly, and worked around a single and a deep fly ball double off the bat of Yordan Alvarez in the third to avoid damage, but it was unmistakable that the Astros were getting good contact off him. That caught up to him in the fourth, with Yainer Diaz, Cam Smith, and Taylor Trammell launching back to back to back solo home runs that extended the Astros’ margin to four. Bieber recorded one more out, but then a pair of singles knocked him out of the game. In all, the Astros got four runs on nine hits off him, against just two strikeouts. It took him 75 pitches to get through 4.2 innings. Tommy Nance took over, intentionally walking Alvarez to face Christian Walker and getting a fly out to keep Toronto within striking distance.
The offence looked like they were about to jump on Peter Lambert all afternoon, but the couldn’t execute often enough. They loaded the bases with two out in the first, on a single by Jesus Sanchez and walks by Kazuma Okamoto and Brandon Valenzuela, but Daulton Varsho struck out to prevent any of them from coming home. Luis Urias singled and Andres Gimenez doubled in the second, but a pair of soft liners off the bats of George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero jr. both found gloves.
They finally got through in the fifth. Varhso doubled and Urias homered to cut the deficit to 4-2. Myles Straw added another hit, but Lamber rallied to get a pop up and a pair of Ks to stop them getting closer than that. Okamoto chipped in his second walk in the fifth. Lambert got two outs in that frame before being pulled for Steven Okert. Varsho lined a double over Cam Smith’s head in right field, but Okamoto wasn’t able to come around to score and Urias struck out.
Mason Fluharty took over for the Jays in the top of six and worked a 1-2-3 inning. Okert remained to start the bottom half. He got the first two outs, but Springer lined a single. That prompted the Astros to bring in Enyel De Los Santos to face Vlad. Guerrero hit an infield single on a ground ball into the hole, but De Los Santos got Sanchez to tap it back to the mound for the third out.
Spencer Miles took the top of the seventh, setting the Astros down in order with a pair of strikeouts. Okamoto hit a ground ball single in the Jays’ half, which set the table for Varsho’s seventh home run of the season to tie the game at four.
Miles got the first batter of the eighth swinging, but then Yainer Diaz lined a single and Cam Smith reached on a grounder to third that was ruled an infield hit although I thought Okamoto’s throw would have beaten him if it hadn’t pulled Vlad off the bag. That was it for Miles, as Jeff Hoffman got the call to try to escape the jam. He walked his first batter, loading the bases, presumably just to up the drama a little. Then he got a strikeout and a pop out to escape the inning and preserve the tie. Old friend Nate Pearson took the mound in the bottom half. Springer worked a one out walk and took second on a wild pitch, and Vlad tapped one very softly halfway back to the mound but reached on Pearson’s throwing error. Vlad stole second while Sanchez was in the process of striking out. That allowed both runners to score when Okamoto lined a single to left, putting the Jays up for the first time this afternoon, 6-4.
With Louis Varland having pitched three innings over the past three days, the save attempt fell to Tyler Rogers. He wasn’t sharp, giving up back to back singles to Altuve and Alvarez to begin the inning. A foul pop up got him the first out, but an Isaac Paredes liner to centre field loaded the bases. Valenzuela was called for catcher’s interference against Joey Loperfido, forcing in a run to make it 6-5. Smith tied it on a sac fly before a Jeremy Pena ground out ended the inning. The Jays couldn’t touch Josh Hader, so we got some free baseball.
Braydon Fisher took the mound in the 10th and kept the Manfred man from scoring, breezing through the inning on seven pitches. Logan VanWey got the call for the Astros. Andres Gimenez sac bunted Nathan Lukes to third, after missing the first attempt and nearly popping the second up. Springer grounded out softly, which wasn’t enough to score Lukes from third. Vlad hit a fly ball to the track in centre, which would have been useful with one fewer out but instead ended the inning.
Fisher returned for the 11th. It started well. After intentionally walking Yordan Alvarez, he struck Walker and Paredes out. At that point, though, Joey Loperfido launched a three run shot into the third deck down the right field line, putting Houston ahead 9-6. Okamoto added his third hit of the afternoon with one out in the home half, scoring automatic runner Guerrero to cut the lead to 9-7. Valenzuela grounded to first for what should have been a game ending double play, but VanWey dropped the return throw to keep things alive for Varsho. After two doubles and a home run on the afternoon, though, he was only able to manage a soft flare to second for the final out.
Jays of the Day: Hoffman (0.18), Okamoto (0.48), Varsho (0.25)
Less so: Bieber (-0.22), Rogers (-0.29), Springer (-0.24), Vlad (-0.11), Sanchez (-0.25), Fisher (-0.10), Valenzuela (-0.15)
The series wraps up tomorrow. We’re back to the usual 7:07pm ET start. Trey Yesavage (3-3, 3.76) will look to build on a strong outing last time around in Boston. The Astros will start Mike burrows (3-8, 5.79).
