Jays lose in extras

Blue Jays 2 Orioles 3

So, that didn’t end right. Mark Trumbo hit a 2-out, game-winning home run in the 12 inning off Jason Grilli.

We got a very nice start from Marco Estrada. He went 6 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 walks and had 4 strikeouts. He had a tough 3rd inning. Seth Smith hit one to center, over Kevin Pillar, but a ball that Pillar normally would catch fairly easily. This time he came up just short. Things came apart, for a moment, after that. An Adam Jones walk (they might have pitched around him) and then, an out later, a fly off the wall in right. Jose Bautista made a very nice play on it, throwing to second to get Chris Davis trying to stretch his double into a double. It still scored a run. A Mark Trumbo double would score the Orioles second run.

Marco left the game at 89 pitches. Maybe could have gone longer, but it was the first game of the season, and I’m happy with Gibby giving Biagini the start of the inning, instead of waiting for a base runner.

Joe Biagini did a great job, getting through the 7th and first 2 outs of the 8th, before giving up a single. J.P. Howell came in to face Chris Davis, and got him out on a longish opposite field fly.

Joe Smith got in his first work as a Jay. In the 9th he gave up a 1-out bloop single, but then got a fly, slicing towards Jose Bautista. Bautista made a nice catch then threw out the runner, who had left first. 1 game in Jose has 2 assists. Smith got the first 2 outs of the 10th and then turned the ball over to Aaron Loup to face lefty Seth Smith, but the O’s pinch hit.

Loup gave up a very soft ground ball that rolled through the infield. Baseball isn’t always fair. Grilli came in with a runner on first and 2 out. He got Adam Jones to ground out to end the inning. The single was hit a lot softer than the out.

Grilli got the first 2 outs of the 12th, and then gave up the walk off homer.

Offensively, we had troubles with Kevin Gausman. We did load the bases, in the 5th, but only scored 1. That was on a Kendrys Morales walk. Tulo made the third out, a ground out, after a 9 pitch at bat.

We got our second run in the 6th. Steve Pearce had a 1-out single. Then with 2 outs, and a full count, Ezequiel Carrera pulled one down the 3rd base line. Since Pearce was running on the pitch, and with the help of a Jonathan Schoop bobble on the cutoff, he was able to score.

We weren’t getting the ‘timely’ hits. We had 11 hits and 6 walks, but just the 2 runs. Our 3, 4 and 5 hitters had a very bad day at the plate: Bautista (0 for 5, with a walk), Tulowitzki (0 for 5) and Morales (0 for 4 with a walk).

On the other hand, Travis (2 for 6), Donaldson (3 for 5, walk), Steve Pearce (3 for 5) and Carrera (2 for 3) enjoyed good days at the plate.

There was an interesting moment. Leading off the 10th, with lefty Zach Britton pitching, Gibby had Darwin Barney pinch hit for Ezequiel. He struck out and then stayed in the game as the left fielder. If the Jays hadn’t released Upton, that would have been a good spot for him.

And, Manny Machado made a great diving grab, up the third base line, and then an amazing throw from his knees, to get Travis in the 11th inning.

Jays of the Day: Carrera (.207 WPA), Biagini (.148), Smith (.142), Donaldson (.168) and Estrada (.092).

Suckage: Bautista (-.381, but then that doesn’t count his terrific defense) and Tulo (-.244). And, the FanGraphs graph stopped in the 10th inning (so all the numbers might be a little off), but I’m going to guess Grilli would have gotten the suckage number too.

Even with the day game, we had 1573 comments in the game threads. radivel led the way. Great job.