Jays win on a Ryan Goins walkoff hit!

Clevelanders 7 Blue Jays 8

The legend that is Ryan Goins!

That was a fun bottom of the 9th. We got the bases loaded (bloop single from Ezequiel Carerra, and 2-out walks from Justin Smoak and Steve Pearce). Then, our hero, Ryan Goins, pulled a pinch down the right field line. Just amazing. Who figured we’d beat Cody Allen? That’s just Cody’s second earned in 13.2 innings) this season.

Francisco Liriano was terrible again. 2 innings plus 4 batters. He had a nice neat second inning, after giving up 2 runs in the first inning. Then he started the 3rd with a walk, two singles, a walk and another single. That was it for his night. The nice part was that Danny Salazar was no better (2.2 innings, 5 earned, 5 hits, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts, 1 home run).

The way our rotation is, at the moment, we need him to give us more than 2 innings. His stat line, 2 innings, 5 hits, 7 earned, 3 walks and no strikeouts.

His line wasn’t helped by Dominic Leone coming in and giving up back-to-back doubles to clear the bases. Dominic pitched a nice quick 4th inning (and with the help of a nice relay from Ezequiel Carrera and Devon Travis, in the 2nd inning, he managed to get through without an earned run).

We got good bullpen work after that:

• Danny Barnes pitched 2 scoreless, giving up 3 hits with 2 strikeouts.
• Ryan Tepera pitched a quick inning, with 2 strikeouts. I though he might get another inning.
• Joe Smith was helped by a ‘nice’ catch by Steve Pearce (Dan said it was a ‘unique route’ to the ball, but he caught it). He gave up a hit and got 2 strikeouts.
• Roberto Osuna pitched a nice neat 9th, that included a bat toss from Edwin. He gets the win.

On offense? Well, we had a pretty good night. In the

• First, we scored 3. Pillar walked, Ezequiel singled and Jose Bautista crushed a homer. It got out in a hurry. Very nice to see.
• Third, we scored 2. Bautista walked, Smoak doubled (giving us runners on second and third). Steve Pearce hit a sac fly and Goins single.
• Fourth, we scored 2. Darwin Barney doubled and Ezequiel hit a home run.

After that, the Clevelanders’ bullpen took over, until the bottom of the 9th.

We had 11 hits (with 5 extra base hits) and 6 walks. Pillar (with a walk)Pearce(walk and sac fly) and Maile, were the only 0 fors on the day. Goins and Carrera had 3 hits each. Barney had 2.

Jays of the Day: Goins (.487 WPA, 3 for 4, 2 RBI), Carerra (.261, 3 for 5, 2 RBI, homer), Bautista (.189, 1 for 3, home run, 2 walks), Barnes (.144), Osuana (.141) and Smith (.109).

Suckage: Liriano (-.468) and Maile (-.275, on an 0 for 4, but he did throw out a base stealler).

I said that watching Edwin Encarnacion throw his bat and, after a foul off, smell his bat, almost brought a tear to my eye. He leaves after going 3 for 9 with 4 walks, but no RBI. I’ll consider that a success.

We had 724 comments in the GameThread. I led us to victory. That’s my first win of the season. Working that keyboard with a flu that would kill the average man, so I expect to be dead by morning.