Jays 0 A’s 2
We had a bullpen day, and the pen did the job. If you only allowed 2, you really ought to win. But there is a truism in baseball, if you don’t score you won’t win.
We used six pitchers:
- Braydon Fisher opened. He pitched a clean inning with a strikeout. 18 pitches.
- Michael Lorenzen wasn’t as good. He went 2.2, gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts but 2 earned with a home run. Had we been able to score a bit, it would have been ok.
- Paul Sewald (who we seem to have turned into a useful pitcher) pitched a clean inning.
- Joe Mantiply pitched a clean 1.1.
- Tyler Rogers allowed 1 walk in his inning.
- Louis Varland got 2 strikeouts in the ninth.
The offense, wasn’t pretty. Just 6 hits, 5 singled and a double and 3 walks.
We did have chances. We had baserunners every inning except for the seventh and eighth.
And we had two on with one out in the fifth but Vlad hit into a double play. In the eighth Vlad and Springer hit flies to the warning track.
The
Guardians don’t play until tonight, so for the moment we are 1.5 games back. 15 games left and either 1 or 2 games back is better than we thought we’d be a couple of months back. We are still not in the ‘have to run the table’ time but we are going to have to win a bunch.
Next up are the Orioles, back at Rogers Centre, then the Tigers. Six games at home. We might have a clearer view of our chances after that.
No Jay of the Day today. High mark is 0.06 WPA from Lukes (for a pinch hit singled) and Sewald.
Other Award: Vlad (-0.17), Valenzuela (-0.11) and Lorenzen (-0.09).
