Bautista and Morales homer, plus small ball, Jays beat Mariners

Mariners 2 Blue Jays 7

Four in a row!

Isn’t it great to have Bautista hitting homers again. That 3 run homer in the 7th was a thing of beauty. I was thinking we were looking to get a run to save us from extra innings. 3 was much better.

The bottom of the 8th was run too:

• Ryan Goins singled (after having to dive out of the way of a pitch up and in, Zaun would say ‘gotta move the feet of the locked in batters)(joke by the way, no way were they throwing at him).
• After a Darwin Barney strikeout, Devon Travis hit a weak ground ball to second. Goins had to wait for the ball to pass before going to second and second baseman Taylor Motter decided (stupidly) to try to get Goins at second. He slipped, as the threw, and we had runners on first and second.
• With Luke Maile up, Goins stole third, taking advantage of a pitcher not paying attention. Then Maile was hit by pitch to load the bases.
• Kevin Pillar hit a sac fly, giving us a 4 run lead.
• Then we pulled off a double steal, Maile took off from first, throw went to second, and Travis ran home, he was just barely safe. Nice job.

We scored our first run, in the 3rd inning, on ‘small ball’. Pillar hit a 2-out single, stole second and scored on Ezequiel Carrera’s single. Our second run was a Kendrys Morales solo homer.

Early in the game, I thought we were snake bit. We were hitting the ball hard, but finding gloves. Jarrod Dyson seemed to be catching everything. But, if you continue to hit the ball hard, good things will happen.

We had 11 hits (with no walks), with 2 home runs and 2 doubles (Pillar and Bautista). Pillar had a great day, going 3 for 4, with a steal and a sac fly. Bautista (homer and double, and a hard hit ball into a glove), Carrera and Goins each had 2 hits. Ryan is having a good week, hitting .348/.423/.522 over his past 7 games.

Marcus Stroman, once again, was living on the edge. He seemed to allow a couple of base runners every inning, but then would get out of trouble. He gave up 8 hits and 2 walks over 6 innings, but only 2 earned. It isn’t like the Mariners were crushing his pitches, of the 8 hits, 7 were singles and the other was a double over Kevin Pillar (I though Kevin was going to make a spectacular catch but it was just over him). He also had 9 strikeouts. Only 1 double play turned behind him, I thought there were more.

The bullpen did the job again. This time for 3 innings.

• Jason Grilli came in to start the 7th. We weren’t thrilled, tie game and Grilli’s been terrible this year. He gave up 2 singles and got a fly out. The two singles were both on weak contact (‘swinging bunt’ and a softly hit ground ball through the infield). The hardest hit ball was the fly out.
• Aaron Loup came in with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. He was a bit wild, threw a (very) wild pitch, but got a swinging strike three on a pitch well off the plate.
• Dominic Leone, a bad choice in my opinion, came in to face Danny Valencia, and he got an easy ground out. All works, so it is good. That 1 out got Leone a win, since Bautista homered in the bottom of the inning.
• Joe Smith, with the sudden 3 run lead, gave up a single and walk, but got through the 8th, with the help of catch stealing.
• Up by 5 in the 9th, Leonel Campos came in and gave up a double, down the third base line and a walk. Gibby decided not to take a chance (I’m on his side, let’s not mess up a win) and brought in Roberto Osuna. Osuna got a nice double play and a fly out. No save, but I’m happy being careful with wins.

Also of note, Luke Maile threw out Guillermo Heredia trying to steal second, in the 8th inning. Trying to steal, down by 3, in the 8th, is stupid, but if you try, you better be safe.

Jays of the Day: Leone gets the number (.102 WPA, for a very high leverage out), Bautista (.249), Carrera (.099) and I’m giving one to Pillar (.079, but a 3 for 4 day, with a steal).

Suckage: Barney (-.100, 0 for 4, k). Travis had the number (-.095) but I’m letting him off the hook because of his slide into home just before the tag.

And this guy gets a suckage for spilling beer, when the ball was three people between him and the ball:

We had 792 comments in the GameThread. Matt W led us to victory. Great job.