Blue Jays waste a great start from J.A. Happ, lose to Rays

Rays 1 Blue Jays 0

After scoring roughly 120 runs in three games against the Cubbies, we couldn't push 1 run across against the Rays and a pitcher that none of us had heard of before

That was a waste of a really good start from J.A. Happ. Happ went 7 innings, allowed just 2 hits (unfortunately one of them was a Ryan Hanigan home run that just barely cleared the wall in left), 1 walk, with 7 strikeouts. Happ was great, you couldn't ask for more from him.

Aaron Sanchez pitched 2 good innings, allowing just 1 walk. He does seem to have put away the curve, he threw just one that I noticed. I wonder if that means he's lost the spin on it. He was terrific, throwing high 90's.

Unfortunately, we didn't do anything with the bats. Someone named Nate Karns held us to just 2 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 8 in 7 innings. Nor could we do anything against Jake McGee or Grant Baufour in the 8th and 9th.

We really should have scored in the first. Karns had trouble finding the strike zone in the inning. Jose Reyes walked, Jose Bautista was hit by pitch and Adam Lind was walked. Sadly, in between Bautista and Lind, Edwin Encarnacion bounced one to third baseman Evan Longoria, who stepped on third and threw to first for the double play. Dioner Navarro ground out to end the inning. And that would be the only time the home side would threaten.

The only Jays to hit were Lind (1 for 3, with a walk) and Danny Valencia (1 for 3, double). On the "were they using the right end of the bat" side of the ledger, Navarro had 3 strikeouts and Kevin Pillar and Anthony Gose had 2 each.

Colby Rasmus pinch hit, but didn't homer. Munenori Kawasaki pinch hit for Ryan Goins (if Munenori is pinch hitting for you, you shouldn't be writing your Hall of Fame speech).

I didn't understand why Gibby didn't pinch hit for Gose, leading off the 8th, against lefty McGee. Mayberry should have come in to hit there, but then who knows if he would have made a difference.

Jays of the Day are Happ (.265 WPA) and Sanchez (.097).

Suckage goes to Edwin (-.253), Navarro (-.156) and Gose (-.117). You could really give one to all the batters. The lineup added up to a -.862 WPA.

We had 1130 comments in a pleasant GameThread. Spor led the way, but then he posts each comment several times so I should discount his score by 66%.