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Blue Jay 4 Red Sox 3
That was a nice 8th inning:
- Kevin Pillar started us off with a single, off Koji Uehara, and went to second on a Josh Rutledge throwing error.
- In an interesting move, Gibby had Justin Smoak pinch hit for Ezequiel Carrera. I really figured that Gibby would have Carrera bunt the tying runner to third. Smoak hasn't made a lot of contact, so far, this season. But Smoak worked a 7 pitch walk. It was an interest move in another way, as Bautista was DHing, and we really didn't have another outfielder on the bench (unless you count Chris Colabello).
- A passed ball moved Pillar to third and pinch runner Darwin Barney to second.
- Michael Saunder hit a hard ground ball to second, I thought he hit it too hard for Pillar to score, but Kevin was off pretty much at contact. Great job Kevin.
- Uehara hit Josh Donaldson with a pitch. I'm glad Josh kept his shoulder up, I though he was going to take it in the head.
- Jose Bautista took an 8 pitch walk. And Farrell brought in his closer. Craig Kimbrel, looking for strikeouts with a tie game and the bases loaded.
- And Kimbrel did get Edwin Encarnacion to strike out. And I was think 'well a tie is alright'.
- Troy Tulowitzki has been looking terrible at the plate, but after falling behind 1-2, he got a walk and we were ahead. Great job Tulo.
- Russell Martin had a great 9 pitch at bat, ending with a slicing single to right, scoring two. I have to give Buck Martinez credit, he called it a hit right away. I was hoping it would fall, Buck knew it would.
- Ryan Goins struck out to end the inning, but we were up 4-1.
For the bottom of the inning, Gibby moved Bautista from DH to right, losing us the DH for the rest of the game, but easily the best move available.
J.A. Happ had a terrific start. 7 innings, just 4 hits,1 walk,4 strikeouts. He gave up an earned run on doubles to Hanley Ramirez and Josh Rutledge in the 2nd inning. Jays came close to saving that run when Pillar almost threw out Rutledge at second, it was close, and Ramirez didn't exactly hustle in to home.
Good to see Happ pitching so well.
Brett Cecil pitched a clean 8th.
Drew Storen pitched the 9th and got our blood pressure up. A 1-out single from Dustin Pedroia, and 2-out hits from Travis Shaw brought up David Ortiz with the tying and winning runs on base. Thankfully, Storen struck him out or I likely would have thrown my computer across the room. I'll admit, strike 3 might have been out of the zone, but I'll take it, we had more than our share of bad calls against us this series.
We didn't do all that much offensively, until the 8th inning. We had a tough time against Clay Buchholz. We had 6 hits and 2 walks against him, in 6.2 innings, but we also ground into 4 double plays, with him pitching, and 1 more in the 9th. Jose Bautista hit into double plays in his first 3 at bats.Russell Martin hit into one, and Chris Colabello ground into one in the 9th.
We had 8 hits on the day. 3 for Pillar (plus a walk). If he could have had this hot streak earlier, he'd still be the leadoff hitter. Martin had 2. Saunders,Encarnacion and Tulo had one each.
Fangraphs isn't awake yet, so let's give JoDs to Happ, Pillar, Tulo (great walk) and Martin.
No suckage, but Storen got my heart rate up.