Jays win, take 3 of 4 from the Astros

Blue Jays 4 Astros 1

That was a fun series. Jays scored 1 run in the first game, 2 in the second, 3 in the third and now 4. Amazingly enough, scoring just 10 runs, we won 3 of 4.

And, in each of the games, our starting pitcher allowed just 1 run, but J.A. Happ ruined the streak of 7 innings and 1 run by going 6 innings. He was very good, until some trouble in the 5th and 6th inning.

In the 5th, he gave up a pair of doubles and the Astros only run.

In the 6th, he gave up a leadoff walk, followed by a single. A fly ball to center put runners on the corners, with one out, but Troy Tulowitzki, Devon Travis and Justin Smoak turned a very pretty double play.

In all, Happ allowed 4 hits, 1 walk, with 6 strikeouts. That makes Happ 15-3 on the season. He’s going to get some Cy Young votes.

Joaquin Benoit (remember that’s o before the i Tom), Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna each pitched a scoreless inning of relief, Osuna getting his 24th save. Our bullpen had a great series.

On offense, we did enough. We scored:

• One in the 1st: Travis led things off with a double, he went to third on Jose Bautista’s deep fly out and scored on Josh Donaldson’s ground out. Nice base running from Devon.
• One in the 5th: Russell Martin led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch, went to third on Tulo’s single and scored on a wild pitch.
• One in the 8th: Justin Smoak started off the inning with a double. He was thrown out trying to go to third on Kevin Pillar’s ground ball to second. Amazing throw from Jose Altuve (and Smoak is damn slow). Pillar stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch. We needed to win a challenge on that, he was called out on the play, but the review got it right. Then he scored on a Travis single.
• One in the 9th: Edwin Encarnacion hit his 30th home run of the season and 298th of his career.

We had 8 hits on the day, with 11 strikeouts (setting a new MLB record for strikeouts in a 4 game series, but we won 3 of 4 so who cares). Travis had 3 of those hits.

Jays of the Day: Happ (.258 WPA), Travis (.148, for the 3 for 4, but he also turned that great double play in the 6th and had an other double play where he caught a liner and very quickly threw to first), Martin (.111 and he worked hard behind the plate. He also caught a pop fly that hit the roof of Minute Maid, but ground rules there make it a dead ball) and Benoit (.106).

Suckage: Bautista (-.130, not fair really, he hit a fly to center that would have been a homer in Rogers Centre and he made a terrific catch on a deep line drive, in the first inning).

The Jays are off to Kansas City for a weekend series and I’m off riding in the Enbridge Ride to Conquer Cancer, 228, very hilly, kilometers, over 2 days. My legs are hurting already.

We had 1502 comments in a very pleasant pair of GameThreads. Chatty Cathy led the way on her birthday. That’s dedication. Great job, young lady.