Jays offense takes the night off, lose to Yankees

Blue Jays 0 Yankees 1

That was awful. Beyond that don't know what say.

There are games you win that you shouldn't win and games you lose that you should have won. That was a game we shouldn't have been close in, and we only lost by a run.

Offensively, we did nothing. Chad Green (who is Chad Green?) had a perfect game going until 1 out in the 5th. He pitched 6 innings, allowed just 2 hits, a Troy Tulowitzki single and a Darrell Ceciliani double, no walks and had 11 strikeouts. Green did pitch well. There was a rather large strike zone and Green was all around the edges of it.

We didn't do anything against the first two Yankees out of the bullpen either. Tyler Clippard and Adam Warren pitched clean innings.

We got just our 3rd base runner in the 9th inning when Josh Thole (of all people) walked against Dellin Betances. Junior Lake pinch ran. But Devon Travis popped out. Josh Donaldson singled to give us runners on the corners. Edwin Encarnacion had a hard hit ball, but right at Yankees third baseman Chase Headley.

We really only had one chance to score. In the 5th, we had our single and double, both with one out, putting runners on second and third. But Justin Smoak had an 8 pitch strikeout and Melvin Upton had a 9 pitch strikeout. And that was about it for scoring changes.

On the defensive side, we were very very lucky to only allow the 1 run.

R.A. Dickey went 6 innings, allowed 4 hits and 4 walks, but only the 1 run. He allowed the first 2 batters to reach in the 1st and 2nd innings. Had his 1 clean inning in the 3rd. In the 4th he walked 2 and gave up a double, all with just 1 out, but the Yankees could only score the 1 run. In the 5th, R.A. gave up a leadoff double, but he didn't leave second.

If I was Dickey, I'd buy a lotto ticket on the way to the hotel tonight, not that he needs the money.

Our pitching luck continued after Dickey left the game:

• Joe Biagini loaded the bases, with just 1 out, on 2 singles and a walk. Bases loaded, he got a ground ball back to the mound, he bobbled it but just barely got the out at the plate. A strikeout got him out of the inning.
• Brett Cecil was our only pitcher who didn't need magic to get out of an inning. He did give up a walk, but that was it.
• Ryan Tepera started the 8th by giving up 2 seeing eye singles. But he made a very nice play on a sac bunt, got Jacoby Ellsbury to strikeout and then, after a walk to load the bases, got Didi Gregorius on a "checked swing". I didn't think he swung, but the original home plate umpire, Hunter Wendelstedt took a foul tip hard off the mask and had to leave the game, so there was no 3rd base ump to call the checked swing.

Jays of the Day: Well, Dickey had the number (.118 WPA), even though he was at least as lucky as good. Donaldson also had the number (.152) even with a 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts. But the one hit was in the 9th.

Suckage: Edwin (-.441, 0 for 4 and that badly timed double play to end the game), Travis (-.181, 0 for 4, 1 k and couldn't move up the runner on first in the 9th. If he had, Lake could have scored on Josh's single), Smoak (-.174, 0 for 3, 3 strikeouts) and Upton (-.129, 0 for 3, 1 k).

So we are back in a tie with the Orioles for first. It could be worse.

We had 1387 comments in the understandably grumpy GameThreads. DangYouToHeck led the way. Good job sir.