More on last night’s game

Rangers 6 Blue Jays 7 (10 innings)

So, now that I’ve stopped jumping up and down and my voice is totally shot....let’s do a real recap.

Let’s just say that Josh Donaldson showed great guts/instincts going for home on Roughed Odor’s error. On a play like that Josh should have rounded the bag, and the third base coach should be watching the play, though I’m sure Josh was watching too. As soon as it got away from Mitch Moreland....run hard.

It really is poetic justice that we win on a Roughed Odor error.

Let’s go through the bottom of the 10th. The Rangers surprised me by sending Matt Bush out for a 3rd inning, but, for them, it was win or go home, so might as well ride him as long as you can.

Donaldson led off with a double (he was slow out of the box, but really turned it on around first, I was afraid he’d be thrown out, but he was easy safe) and then the Rangers decided to intentionally walk Edwin Encarnacion.

Now if it was me, I would have brought in Sam Dyson at this point, not that it was Bush’s fault they lost.

Jose Bautista struck out on a full count pitch that was high and outside. It had been a good at bat until that pitch (insert your own Titanic joke here).

Russell Martin also got to a full count, then fouled of two pitches and then hit what looked like a double play ball to short. Elvis Andrus’ throw to Odor at second wasn’t great, Edwin was at second by the time Odor made the throw to first, maybe he bothered Odor just enough. Odor’s throw was wide of first. Moreland knocked it down but Martin was safe.

Donaldson ran home, the throw home was late and Jonathan Lucroy couldn’t catch it.

There was a review, checking Edwin’s slide, but there was no worry, Edwin slide was fine.

Before the 10, well it had been an interesting game.

We scored 3 in the first on a 2-run Encarnacion home run (driving in Ezequiel Carerra, who started our offense with a hard hit single, he’s been great for the past couple of weeks).

We scored 2 more in the 3rd inning. Ezequiel against started things off with a single, stole second and scored on Donaldson’s ground rule double (making the steal a big play), perfectly placed down the right field line. Edwin followed with a single to drive in Josh.

Before the game, I was on CTV News Channel and I said Colby Lewis would be out of the game early, I was right, he came out after Edwin’s single, pitching 2.0 with 5 earned against.

We would get 1 more in the 6th. Troy Tulowitzki singled, went to 3rd on pinch hitter Melvin Upton’s double. After Kevin Pillar was intentionally walked (it’s true, he was intentionally walked. It isn’t the first time, he was intentionally walked once last season), Troy scored on a passed ball.

That would be the end of our scoring, until the 10th.

Aaron Sanchez wasn’t good tonight. He gave up:

• A run in the first, walking leadoff hitter Carlos Gomez, who stole second, and came around to score on a pair of ground outs.
• An Elvis Andrus homer in the 3rd inning.
• And a 2-run homer to Odor in the 4th.

In the 6th inning, he got 2 quick outs, and then it turned bad. A walk to Odor and a single by Lucroy got Gibby to pull him from the game.

Joe Biagini came in a Mitch Moreland hit a fly to deep center field. Kevin Pillar ran a mile to just about catch it, it went off his glove. 2 runs would score and we would be behind. It didn’t last long, we’d tie things in the bottom of the inning.

Aaron went 5.2, allowed just 3 hits (but 2 were homers), 4 walks (he was a little too amped up, and the plate umpire was a little inconsistent) with 6 earned (2 scoring after he left the game. The way he was pitching, it was a surprise he made it through 5.2.

Our bullpen (after the Moreland double) did a great job:

• Biagini pitched 1.1, pitching a quick 7th. He might have been able to go longer. Biagini did get up to warm in the 5th (maybe the 4th as well, I’m not sure), but he only threw 16 pitches in the game.
• Jason Grilli got the first two outs of the 8th, with one strikeout.
• Brett Cecil came in to face the lefty Odor. Again, Grilli could likely have gone longer but then he’s not great against lefties and Odor was having a good game (until the bottom of the 10th).
• Roberto Osuna pitched the 9th and 10th, without allowing a base runner and getting 2 strikeouts. The TBS commentators said he was ‘gassed’, but I thought he looked pretty good. He got the win.

Gibby didn’t run the pen the way I likely would have, but we won. I’m not sure who would have pitched the 11th, if we hadn’t scored.

Jays of the Day: Osuna (.273 WPA), Donaldson (.207, plus extra points for the great base running), Edwin (..239), Martin (.288, course much of that comes on Odor’s error), Tulo (.146) and Upton (.125).

Suckage: Biagini (-.194, all on that double that Pillar almost caught), Sanchez (-.104), Bautista (-.239, for an 0 for 5, 2 k) and Barney (-.229, on an 0 for 4).

We had 2453 comments in the GameThreads. Spockster led us to victory again. Great job.