Blue Jays Sweep the Red Sox

Blue Jays 6  Red Sox 1

I don't think anyone, including the ones that wrote it, understands the 'blocking the plate' rule. Clearly, Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez was blocking the plate, in the 6th inning with Melky Cabrera coming home from second, on a Dioner Navarro single. But, upon review, the call wasn't made. I'm starting to get to where I agree with the ones that don't like the new rule. Not because I think catchers should be run over, I think that has always been a stupid part of the game, but because no one understands the rule.

Anyway, like the other games in this series, we got good start from our starting pitcher. Mark Buehrle was very good or the Red Sox hitters have given up. It might be the latter. Buehrle went 6.2, allowed just 6 hits, 1 walk, 1 earned, with 2 strikeouts. Gibby pulled him with 2 on and 2 out in the 7th. Aaron Loup got the third out, a strikeout of STEVE BROCK HOLT. Loup pitched a quick 8th. Dustin McGowan pitched a scoreless 9th.

Our offense, once again, looked great, helped by some awful Red Sox defense. We scored 3 runs in the 5th helped along by two errors, one by starting pitcher Brandon Workman, short hopping the first baseman, after fielding a Jose Reyes bunt, allowing Anthony Gose to score from second and, on the next batter, third baseman, Xander Bogaerts booted a softly hit Cabrera ground ball. Back-to-back singles scored Reyes and Cabrera.

We scored 2 in the first inning, cashing in on Workman's lack of control. He walked Reyes and Cabrera to start the game and then went full count before getting Jose Bautista to strikeout. But Dioner Navarro singled (also on a full count) and Juan Francisco hit into a fielders' choice (a ground ball that Buck and Tabby's hero, Brock Holt was too slow in throwing home)  scoring the other run.

We had 9 hits and 5 walks. Gose, Reyes and Cabrera each scored twice, going 4 for 10 with 3 walks between them. Navarro was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI. His one out was on his hardest hit ball of the day, he hit the ball to the short outfield fence in right, but Daniel Nava caught the ball before it cleared the wall. Francisco had 2 RBI.

Ryan Goins was 1 for 4 but he hit the ball hard 3 of his 4 times up and he made two very good plays on defense. I hope he can keep this up. In the nice defensive plays column, Reyes went a fair distance to his right, to get a ground ball, and made a great throw to first

Jays of the Day are Buehrle (.243 WPA), Navarro (.194) and Cabrera (.094).

Suckage goes to Bautista (-.092 on an 0 for 4 with a walk). Also having tough nights were Colby Rasmus (0 for 5, 2 strikeouts) and Munenori Kawasaki (0 for 3, k), but they didn't get to the suckage number.

We have a very nice GameThread, with 1137 comments. JaysWillRise and MjwW tied for the most comments. So you two are going to have to go to Penalty Kicks to decide the winner.