Tough start for Marcus Stroman, Jays lose to A's

Blue Jays 7 A's 8

Well, that was far less than fun.

Marcus Stroman had a bad night. He suffered from some bad luck and bad defense, but there plenty of bad pitching in there too.

He was very unlucky when, what should have been an easy ground ball, hit second base and got past Devon Travis. And then there was a passed ball, which, when followed by a single, cost him a run. Then, in the 5th inning, with 2 outs, Josh Reddick hit a line drive at Ezequiel Carrera in right field that Ezequiel likely should have caught, but he either didn't see the ball or misjudged it, but he didn't move on it. After what should have been the third out, Marcus gave up two long home runs. The missed catch ended up costing 3 runs.

In all Stroman gave up 9 hits, 7 runs, 6 earned, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts, with 3 home runs in 4.2 innings. Reddick, Kris Davis and Stephen Vogt all hit homers deep to center field. None of the 3 were cheapies.

The Jays were up 7-3, mid-way through the 4th inning and by the time Marcus left with 2 outs in the 5th, the game was tied.

Jesse Chavez pitched 1.1 scoreless.

Brett Cecil gave up 2 hits and a walk, but almost got out of his innings on a terrific throw by Kevin Pillar, which, as called by the plate umpire, was just in time to get Josh Reddick at the plate. Unfortunately, the call was overturned on replay. It was a very close play. If they had said 'inconclusive' I would have likely agreed, but we couldn't get that lucky. And that call was the difference in the game.

Bo Schultz got the last 4 outs, allowing just 1 walk. He seems to be earning himself higher leverage spots.

On offense, we scored 7 runs in the first four innings and then nothing over the last five. We hit Daniel Mengden like it was batting practice, getting 6 hits, 3 walks and 7 runs against him in 3.1 innings.

Unfortunately we were only able to pick up 1 hit (and 5 walks) in 5.2 innings against a lousy A's bullpen. This offense should be able to score off a bullpen that bad.

We had 7 hits in total, all singles, and 8 walks. Kevin Pillar Devon Travis was the only Jay with 2 hits and he had a walk. Justin Smoak was 1 for 2 with 2 walks.

Carerra, Donaldson, Saunders, Tulowitzki, Pillar and Travis had 1 RBI each.

Jays of the Day: Travis (.124 WPA) and Saunders (.101).

Suckage goes to Stroman (-.569), Cecil (-.223) and Martin (-.119).

Of note, A's first baseman Yonder Alonso and manager Bob Melvin were ejected in the 4th inning for arguing a strike call. Plate umpire Mark Wegner was having a tough night, especially early in the game.

We had 1278 comments in the GameThreads. Momus led the way. Great job.