Blue Jays 4 Red Sox 2: Mark Buehrle clears 200 innings for the 13th straight season

Blue Jays 4 Red Sox 2

Another really nice start for Mark Buehrle. At the start of the season, I couldn't imagine watching him pitch 200+ innings, he was so bad, since then he's been terrific. He is sitting at 200.1 innings, getting over 200 inning for the 13th straight season. And he picks up his 12th win of the season. He's been in double digits in wins for the same 13 seasons.

Buehrle went 6, allowed 5 singles, 0 walks, 1 earned run (which really should be charged against the plate umpire) and 5 strikeouts. Hit had a hit batter, Shane Victorino, on a pitch that was a strike, but the plate umpire blew the call. Leaning over the plate, to get hit by a pitch, is something that would have bough you a pitch in the ear in the old days. Oh well.

Our bullpen did a great job. Dustin McGowan gave up an unearned run in his inning, Brett Lawrie whiffed on a ground ball he at him. Sergio Santos pitched a terrific clean 8th inning. And Casey Janssen struck out 2 in the 9th, picking up his 33rd save.

To be fair, the Red Sox hitters were likely hung over.

Didn't get much offense, but enough. 9 hits on the day, 2 for Brett Lawrie, one each for every other starter except our DH Munenori Kawasaki. Well, Kawasaki did have a single, the first base umpire just missed it. He was clearly safe at first, and then he was ejected for throwing his helmet into the ground after the call. Clearly the umpire was intimidated by the 5'3" Kawasaki. Kidding, he's listed at 5'10", which is likely only an inch or two of an overstatement.

We scored 3 runs in the 4th inning. With 2 outs, Lawrie singled, Adam Lind doubled him home. Singles from Moises Sierra and Rajai Davis scored Lind. A wild pickoff throw from Clay Buchholz allowed Sierra to score.

We picked up an insurance run in the 8th. Davis walks, Anthony Gose bunted him to second and, what damn near rates as a miracle, J.P. Arencibia hit a ball hard off the 'Green Monstah' for a single, driving in Davis. JP's hit would have been a home run in a normal ballpark. That was JP's first RBI since September 7 and his 2nd RBI of the month. He's due for a hot streak. JP also didn't strikeout today, the first game that he's started and hasn't struck out since September 10th.

I'm not sure which was the bigger surprise, JP's hit or Kawasaki's ejection.

We were also caught stealing 3 times, Reyes, Lawrie and Gose were all caught. Obviously Red Sox catcher David Ross didn't drink as much as the rest of the Red Sox.

Nice that we could hand Buchholtz his first loss of the year, his record drops to 11-1.

Jays of the Day: Buehrle (.262 WPA), Santos (.153), Lind (112), Janssen (.108) and Davis (.109).

No suckage Jays. Kawasaki had the low mark at -.079, but some of that belongs to the first base umpire.

We had a nice, if slow starting, GameThread. 19 of us put up 369 comments. I led the way. Yay me.