Boyd Meets World: Blue Jays Lose To Rangers

Rangers 4 Blue Jays 0

The best offence in baseball certainly did not act the part on Saturday afternoon. A strong performance from Yovani Gallardo, a wide strike zone, and simple bad luck kept the Jays off the scoreboard during Matt Boyd's first major league start. When a Blue Jays hitter did manage to make good contact, the ball always seemed to be hit right at somebody.

Matt Boyd's anticipated debut got off to a terrific start. A high-inside curveball struck out leadoff man Shin-Soo Choo, before an outside fastball rung-up Ryan Rua. Prince Fielder's two-out single was quickly stranded, leading to an impressive first career major league inning.

The second inning was not as kind to Boyd, as an Elvis Andrus bunt single promptly came around to score. The rookie did rebound with a scoreless third-inning, but a Mitch Moreland homerun led off the fourth and put Toronto down 2-0. Robinson Chirinos later crushed a home run off a 1-2 offering in the fifth, before Rougned Odor barely cleared the wall to join the solo-shot parade in the seventh.

Though the long ball plagued Boyd's outing, it was a fairly impressive big league debut. The southpaw struck out seven and never issued a walk, a great sign for things to come. An infield single kept him from pitching seven innings, but he did leave to a respectable line of 6.2 IP/ 9H/ 4 ER/ 7K/ 0 BB.

Offensively, Toronto's three hits came from Edwin Encarnacion, Kevin Pillar and Josh Donaldson. Jose Bautista and Russell Martin each reached base with a walk, but it was otherwise a very poor performance from the hitters.

Today's Jay of the Game goes to Devon Travis for his standout play. In the sixth, a potential double play was botched by an errant throw from Matt Boyd. Devon Travis hustled behind second base to back the throw up. He stopped the ball from going into the outfield, before somehow managing to quickly flip to Reyes for a force out.

With a fairly impressive debut I will spare Matt Boyd of the "suckage". With the second worst WPA, Chris Colabello (-0.8) will have to take the award after grounding into a double play.

The rubber match of this series is scheduled to get underway tomorrow at 1:07 PM Eastern. Drew Hutchison will take the mound against right-hander Chi Chi Gonzalez.