Tulowitzki plays hero, Jays beat Tigers

Tigers 4 Blue Jays 5

Thank you so much Troy Tulowitzki. In the bottom of the 8th, with the bases loaded, 2-out and us down by 1, Tulo came up with the hit we had been looking for all night, driving home two, and giving us a lead, something we hadn't had since the top of the 4th inning.

Before that, it was a very frustrating game. A game that should have been an easy win, but we couldn't get the hit when we needed it. Or close calls went against us. Or Joe West would make a stupid call (he must have at least one of those a game). So often there would be that one strike call that just would throw off an at bat.

We left an amazing 14 runners on base. But, since we won, I'll forgive.

We left so many on, it is hard to know where to start. Some examples:

• In the 3rd inning, Donaldson started things off with a double, he moved to 3rd on a fly ball from Edwin (a close play at 3rd, it wasn't that deep a fly). Saunders walked. Martin struck out. Tulo walked. Smoak struck out to leave the bases loaded. Smoak was robbed on the first pitch of the at bat, well off the plate, called a strike. Smoak has hit .301/.469/.565 after being up 1-0, just .175/..213/.252 after being down 0-1.
• The 5th inning started out with Josh reaching on an error and Edwin walks, but with strikeouts from Saunders and Martin and a ground out from Tulo....we couldn't even move them up a base.
• In the 6th, Pillar hits a 1-out single, Darwin Barney follows with a hard hit ball up the alley, it would have scored Pillar, but it bounced over the fence, ground rule double. Then Ezequiel Carrera puts down a pretty good squeeze bunt, but Justin Verlander made a nice play and threw home...Pillar was called out at the plate. It was reviewed. Most of us thought he was safe, but the call wasn't overturned. After the long review, Josh was hit by pitch to load the bases, but Edwin struck out. It didn't look like it was going to be our night.
• In the 7th, after we scored the run, we had Tulo on first with one out. Smoak was rung up on a checked swing that wasn't anywhere close to a swing, but.....Joe West. An awful call. Pillar singled, but Barney ground out.

We did score 2 in the first inning (which seems like days ago now), Josh Donaldson walked, he moved up on an Edwin Encarnacion ground out and Michael Saunders scored him with a single. Russell Martin doubled to bring Saunders.

We wouldn't score again until the 7th. Saunders started the inning with a double and Tulo singled him home.

Drew Hutchison was pretty good. He had a couple of bad pitches, but 6 innings and 3 earned is about the best we should hope. He allowed 6 hits and 1 walk, but 2 of the hits were home runs. He had 7 strikeouts. If we had scored like we should have, he would have had a W.

Brett Cecil gave up, what looked to be, an important run in his inning. He gave up a double to James McCann and a single to Jose Iglesias, then got a ground ball to Troy Tulowitzki, that he might have been able to go home with, to cut off the run, but instead took the double play allowing the runner to score. That put us down 4-2.

Jason Grilli pitched a nice quick 8th.

And Roberto Osuna had a 3-up 3-down 9th for his 18th save.

Jays of the Day: Donaldson (.414 WPA, he was 2 for 3 with a walk, a hit by pitch and reached on error), Tulo (.562, 2 for 2 with a walk, 3 RBI and he saved me from throwing my laptop across the room with the single that gave us the lead in the 8th) and Osuna (.161).

Suckage: Edwin (-.224, 0 for 4 with a walk and left roughly 45 guys on base), Smoak (-.216, 0 for 5, 3 strikeouts, and left 50 guys on base (again roughly)) and Carrera (-.113, for a 1 for 5. He did make a couple of nice catches in the outfield).

Defense did save us. Many many great plays.

There was much more to say about that game, but I want the recap up before midnight (my time). The important thing is we got our 6th straight win.

We had 1630 comments in the GameThreads. Momus3 led us to victory with an amazing 223 comments. Great job.