Josh Donaldson hits a walk-off homer, Jays beat Braves in extras

Braves 5 Blue Jays 6 (10 innings)

I love Josh Donaldson. He crushed that ball for the walk-off home run. I think we are going to enjoy this guy.

So often, the game seems to change on one bad call. In the 3rd inning, R.A. Dickey, with 2 outs, was 2-2 on Nick Markakis and threw strike three, but didn't get the call. A pitch later, Markakis walks and then Freddie Freeman homers and instead of being out of a inning quick, there are 2 more runs on the board.

But a pitcher should be able to overcome one bad call.

Dickey went 7, allowed 4 hits, 4 walks, had 6 strikeouts, but the bad part were the 2 home runs. When he left the game we were down 4-0 and it looked really bad.

Colt Hynes came in to start the 8th, and gave up 2 soft hit singles, very unlucky. Gibby brought Liam Hendriks in (his best move of the game). Hendriks got a line out and 2 strikeouts to get us out of the inning.

We had no offense early, in the first 6 inning we hit into 4 double plays and had another in the 8th.

But we made a comeback. We had 3 runs in the 7th. Danny Valencia doubled, Russell Martin singled scoring Danny. Then Steve Tolleson tripled, scoring Martin and Steve scored on Dalton Pompey's infield single, that he just barely beat out for a single. The ruling on the field was challenged by the Braves, but it was as close a call as you'll ever see and they didn't overturn it. Great hustle for Pompey, we needed it.

In the 8th Jose Bautista hit a 2-run homer giving us out first lead.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long, Kelly Johnson hit a home run off Miguel Castro in the 9, tying the game and giving Castro his career first blown save.

It stayed tied until the bottom of the 10th.

Jays of the Day: Donaldson (.497 WPA), Bautista (.370), Valencia (.128, 4 for 4, 2 doubles), Hendriks (.134) and Cecil (.136). I'm also giving one to Pompey for beating out that single, that was so important.

Suckage goes to Castro (-.202, sorry kid), Dickey (-.165), Travis (-.169, sorry again), Pillar (-.103, though he did make a very good, very important catch in the 9th) and Encarnacion (-.097, 0 for 4).

I don't know about you guys, and I don't like calling game 12 a must win, but I really needed that win. I think all us fans needed it. My Twitter feed was so grumpy today (not that I haven't been grumpy today).

Tomorrow is the rubber game of the series. Shelby Miller vs Daniel Norris, should be interesting.

We had 803 comments in the GameThread, pretty good for a Saturday afternoon with playoff basketball (sorry Raptors, get them next time) and hockey. I led the way for the first time this year.