Blue Jays beat up Tigers bullpen, win 4th in a row

Blue Jays 8 Tigers 2

Four in a row! June, so far, has been a statement month.

A bit of a strange game, R.A, Dickey wasn't good, Rick Porcello was good, but we won big. The Tigers' bullpen has been terrible these two games.

R.A. Dickey went just 5 + innings. He gave up 7 hits, 4 walks with 4 strikeouts, but only 2 earned runs. In the 6th inning, he walked Austin Jackson, gave up a single to Alex Avila and walked Nick Castellanos, to start the inning but Gibby brought in Aaron Loup (a batter or two too late in my not so humble opinion). Loup got J.D. Martinez to strikeout, and got popups from Rajai Davis and Ian Kinsler to save Dickey's ERA and save his W. R.A. owes Loup a few drinks, or maybe a car.

Loup started the 7th by walking Miguel Cabrera, but got Victor Martinez to hit into a double play and Torii Hunter to ground out. 2 great innings of work from Loup.

Brett Cecil had all sorts of bad luck in the 8th. After a strikeout, he hit Avila with a pitch, then got Castellano to hit an easy ground ball that Edwin Encarnacion just missed. It should have been an easy play and could have been a double play. Oh well, Edwin's been so good, we'll forgive. Eugenio Suarez hit a ground ball to Brett Lawrie, that he caught, stepped on third and threw to first, a bit wild, the ball went off Suarez for an error. I thought that Edwin could have tried to catch it before it got to th runner but it wasn't an easy play.

Gibby decided to pull Cecil and let Dustin McGowan pitch to Rajai Davis. Rajai has troubles with RHB, and he struck out.

Edwin was pulled from the game after the inning. Gibby says his back 'tightened up' and he is day-to-day. Likely will missed tomorrow's day game.

Chad Jenkins pitched a quick. 1, 2, 3 9th inning.

On offense, we had troubles with Porcello, but not with the Tigers bullpen. Porcello went 7 innings, allowed 6 hits and 3 earned and took the loss. We scored:

• 1 run in the first, Melky Cabrera homered.
• 2 in the 6th. After 2 outs, Melky doubled, Jose Bautista walked and Adam Lind doubled them home.
• 3 in the 8th. Jose Reyes singled, went to score on a wild pickoff attempt, then scored on Melky's single. Bautista singled, Lind doubled, scoring one. The Tigers intentionally walked Edwin and brough Phil Coke in to pitch to Juan Francisco. Gibby put Steven Tolleson to pinch hit and he got an RBI on a ground out.
• 2 more in the 9th. Erik Kratz and Anthony Gose singled and both moved up on a ground out. Then Bautista doubled them both home.

Jays of the Day are Loup (.469 WPA), Adam Lind (.253) and Melky (.223) and I'm giving one to Bautista, he had a .088, but he also made two nice catches in RF that really helped Dickey.

Suckage: Dickey (-.231, he gets the win and a suckage, that doesn't happen too often) and Francisco (-.137 on an 0 for 3).

We had 1807 comments in our GameThreads. Pikachu gritted out a win. Great job.