Josh Donaldson hits a walk-off home run, Jays beat Rays

Rays 4   Blue Jays 5

Josh Donaldson folks!!

MVP MVP MVP!

I really don't want to do a real recap. Josh hit the walk-off homer, 2 outs in the 9th. That should be enough.

Before that, we didn't have much offense, and most of it came from Justin Smoak. Smoak hit a RBI ground-rule double in the first inning. He hit a 2-run homer in the 6th. He had a 1-out single in the 8th, and was replaced by Dalton Pompey as a pinch runner. Pompey stole second and scored on Kevin Pillar's double (a pitch that was high, above the strike zone and he just tomahawked it). Until Donaldson's homer, Smoak was in on all the scoring.

We had 10 hits and 3 walks. Smoak had 3, Pillar 2. All the other starters had a hit, expect for Jose Bautista (0 for 4, but he had 2 homers yesterday and he got robbed by Evan Longoria, when I was sure he had an RBI double) and Ryan Goins (0 for 2 before he came out of the game for a pinch hitter).

Mark Buehrle wasn't great. He did pitch 6 innings, allowing 5 hits, 4 earned, 1 walk with 5 strikeouts. Not a terrible start, but he was hit hard early. Someone named Mikie Mahtook had a home run off him.

He came out after the 6th inning, I was hoping Gibby would let him go to the mound for the 7th, just so he could walk off the mound in front of the fans, and he could have had a big ovation. That was his last regular season home start and I really doubt he'll be back next year. He's been so much fun to watch. I'll miss him.

The bullpen did a great job, again. Liam Hendriks went 1.1, with 2 strikeouts, allowing a single to start the 8th. He just allowed the hit so that Aaron Sanchez could come in and get the double play. I thought Sanchez would get the 9th, but Gibby brought in Brett Cecil. Cecil has been so good, it's tough to blame Gibby. He had a 3 up, 3 down inning and gets credit for the win.

Jays of the Day are: Donaldson (Surprise, .350 WPA), Smaok (.354, so glad for him, after we had the 155th argument about him and Colabello to start the GameThread. Honest folks, we know all the opinions now, let's give this one a rest) Pillar (.334) and Cecil (.136).

Suckage: Bautista (-.152, but, like I said 2 homers yesterday, we'll forgive), Buehrle (-.189), Navarro (-.102) and Colabello (-.155, all on hitting into a double play in his pinch hit at bat, in what looked to be a big moment of the game).

Also of note, Donaldson made an great play in the top of the 8th. After Mikie Mahtook stole 3rd (and after a review that seemed to take forever), Longoria hit a ground ball to Josh, Mahtook wandered a bit off the bag and Josh made a great diving tag).

And, in the top of the 9th, Steve Souza popped one to outfield, just beyond the infielders. Pillar and Ben Revere both went for it, Revere caught the ball, Pillar caught Ben's glove in his. Thankfully no one was hurt. On the same play, Donaldson got his heel stepped on by Souza as Souza went around second. Josh was busy watching the play, and had a foot on second. He should have come off the bag, since there was no play, but the play was too much fun to watch. I'm guessing, by the home run, Josh wasn't hurt.

We had 1308 comments in a, mostly, fun GameThread. Belisarius led us to the big victory. Good job sir.