Marco Estrada struggled with his control from the outset, walking three of the 16 batters he faced on the night. He wasn't particularly effective, but was completely undermined by little league defensive play behind him (and that might be unfair to little leaguers. A rundown:
- 1st inning: A flare to the RCF gap falls, and bounces over Michael Saunders, allowing the runner at 1st to come all the way around to score. Assisted by a poor relay job from Devon Travis. 1-0 Red Sox.
- 2nd inning: A passed ball by Dioner Navarro moves a runner from first to second which comes back to bite them when...
- A ball is lined up the middle, barely missed by Estrada, then Travis, and the throw from Pillar gets passed Navarro with no backup but luckily he corrals in time to at least get the runner at 3rd. 2-0 Red Sox.
- 3rd inning: Kevin Upton ranges into left-centre on a sinking liner, tries a shoestring catch but the ball bounces off his glove. In fairness, not a routine play
- Estrada gets a weak popup down the line in right field, but neither Encarnacion or Saunders can get it, Travis didn't go for it, so runners at the corners
- Navarro had the runner third picked, but Donaldson couldn't hold onto the ball
- Estrada induces a routine fly to left field, with the runner tagging to score. Upton was ready to throw before he caught it, and just booted it. 3-0 Red Sox, and then Estrada gave up a hard liner to make it 4-0 and his night was done.
That was the worst of it, but also not the end of it. Travis booted a routine ground ball in the 7th, and Matt Dermody dropped the catch at first to prevent a double play ending the 8th.
Aaron Loup came in and got a double play ball to end the 3rd. Rick Porcello had turned in two quick and clean innings to start, but the Jays finally showed a glimmer of hope in the 3rd. They loaded the bases with none out, and got two runs home to cut the deficit in half to bring the heart of the order up with two on and none out. But Josh Donaldson was called out on three pitches, and Edwin Encarnacion grounded into a double play on the next pitch. They didn't threaten again until the game was out of hand.
Danny Barnes came out for the 4th, and gave up a run on a couple hard hits. He was much better in a perfect 5th inning. Cecil struck out a couple batters, then Feldman got the last out of the 6th. The 7th went mich worse: home run, double to the gap, Travis error, home run. I'd say he was hit hard, but that will have to wait until Fangraphs updates overnight with the contact data so I can get the definitive answer from Baseball Info Solutions.
Ryan Tepera followed and gave up another 2 runs over 1.1 innings, and was relieved by Matt Dermody who added another deuce to the pile in 1.2. At least he got a couple strikeouts. The Jays strung together a couple hits at some point late in the game to score a third run, so that was a really awesome moment that I don't actually really remember.
Jays of the Day: Devon Travis has the number at +0.103 WPA with a 3/5 effort. But he also had a bad error, and a poor relay, so he's not getting it. Just in principle, there shouldn't be a JoD tonight, except maybe anyone who sat through the whole thing.
Suckage: Estrada (-0.289, not all his fault); Donaldson (-0.106, 0/4, 2K, dropped pickoff); Encarnacion (-0.141); Navaroo (-0.098, 0/3, K, and a pile of passed balls). Upton doesn't have the number but all certainly deserves one for the blunders in the field.
Tomorrow, the Jays desperately could use an 18th victory from J.A. Happ as he faces off against Eduardo Rodriguez in the 1:05 Saturday afternoon game.