Blue Jays get a great start from Aaron Sanchez and beat the Astros

Astros 2   Blue Jays 6

Our 3rd win in a row. Tying our longest win streak of the season, the fourth time we have done that this year. Let's keep it going this time. .

We got a great start from Aaron Sanchez. At 8 innings he had just 3 singles against him. And NO WALKS. Just 3 strikeouts, but a lot of ground outs, 12 with just 5 fly outs. He gave up a Jason Castro homer in the 9th and a couple of singles, without getting an out and Gibby took him out of the game.

Roberto Osuna came in with runners on the corners and no one out. The Astros scored a run on a Russell Martin throwing error, on a stolen base, but Roberto struck out the side, without allowing the other run to score. Nice to see him looking so good again, after a couple of poor outings.

Very nice to see the offense coming around. The 3rd inning was a lot of fun. Kevin Pillar started things with a single, and he scored on Jose Reyes' 2-run homer, then Josh Donaldson singled and  Jose Bautista followed with a crushed home run to left. Edwin Encarnacion doubled and scored on Chris Colabello's single.

There has got to be a time limit on challenge reviews. In our 5 run third, with 2 outs, Russell Martin tried to steal second. The throw from the catcher beat him by a lot, but he tried to avoid the tag (and he might have been successful), pulling his left hand back while reaching with his right. It looked like he may have reached the bag before the tag, but it also looked like there was a moment where his right hand came off the bag, before his left hand got to the bag and, it looked like, the tag was still on him.

The review lasted 4:25, which is way way too long and the call wasn't overturned. That's way too long. There should be a time limit. 2 minutes and if no decision is made, stick with the call on the field. MLB wants shorter games. And, long breaks like that tend to 'ice' the pitchers. Sanchez sat for a long time, with us scoring 5 runs. Add that extra time and you take the chance that the Sanchez' arm might stiffen.

I didn't like Russell's decision to try to steal there. Astros starter (what's his name this week?) was having trouble, I want him throwing as many pitches as we can get him to throw, in the early innings. Especially in the first game of the series. Get into that bullpen early and have them throw as many innings as possible.

I also didn't like him bunting in the 6th inning, after Colabello singled. Up by 5 we should never bunt, No reason to play for a run when you are way ahead. And, since Martin popped it up, it didn't help get a run. I'm pretty sure Martin did that on his own.

We did score that run though, Justin Smoak singled Colabello to second and then Pillar hit a ground ball that 2B, Jose Altuve made a nice play on, but threw it a little wide of first. Chris Carter made a nice stretch and catch, but he was right over the bag. Pillar dodged to the infield side, trying not to collide with Carter, but ran into his glove arm and knocked the ball out of his glove. Pillar was still out, but Colabello scored on the play. The great thing about baseball is that on any night you can see something you've never seen before. Tonight, that play was it for me.

In total we had 9 hits and 4 walks. 2 home runs, 2 doubles and just 3 strikeouts. Chris Colabello had 3 of the hits. Everyone else, in the starting lineup had 1 hit, except for Russell Martin (who seems to be in a bit of a slump) and Ryan Goins. The Astros were smart and had their left fielder playing very shallow for Goins, which stole a from him. He's not going to hit one deep the opposite way.

Jays of the Day are Sanchez (.201 WPA), Reyes (.169) and Bautista (.108).

No Suckage Jays. Justin Smoak had the low mark at -.081.

We had 764 comments in a very happy GameThread. DangYouToHeck led us to victory. Great job.