Jays beat the Rangers behind a three-run Bautista blast

Rangers 1 Blue Jays 3

Jays win 5th in a row!

That was a great pitchers duel, and the right pitcher won it.

Marco Estrada gave up a home run, on the first pitch of the game, but, after that, he was terrific. 6 innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts. He was in control.

Yu Darvish, through 4 innings, was even better. We didn’t get our first hit until 2 out in the 4th.

Then came the 5th inning. Luke Maile took a 1-out walk, on 4 pitches. Kevin Pillar followed with a drive to the center field wall, I thought it was going out, but center fielder Jared Hoying made a great catch, crashing into the wall, at one of those scoreboards. He was down for a long time after driving his head into it. We really need a way to change the field of the warning track for the outfielders.

Devon Travis hit a single and then Jose Bautista had the big hit of the game, a 3-run homer.

We loaded the bases again, Kendrys Morales walked, Justin Smoak hit a ground rule double into the left field corner and Russell Martin walked, but Ezequiel Carrera struck out to end the inning.

We only had 7 hits and 3 walks on the day, but Bautista’s homer was the difference.

We loaded the bases, with 1 out in the 9th. Ezequiel had a bunt single, Goins walked and pinch hitter Darwin Barney got on on an infield single. But Kevin Pillar chased off the plate (after Joe West called one of the plate a strike). And Travis had almost the exact same at bat, including the bad Joe West call.

Our bullpen did the job. Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera shared a scoreless 7th, helped out by the best double play you’ll ever see:

Joe Smith pitched a scoreless 8th, around a double, on a pitch that came after umpire Joe West called Elvis Andrus out on strikes, then changed his mine. West ruled foul tip into the dirt. Replays seemed to show there was no foul tip.

Roberto Osuna pitched a perfect 9th, getting his second save in less than 24 hours.

There were, as always with the Rangers, interesting moments:

• Ryan Goins dropped a popup (I would say he dropped it on the transfer). Before he realized the second base ump called it a drop, he tossed it to Travis. Travis, thankfully noticed the runner rounded first and threw to first in time for the out. We were lucky Travis and Smoak stayed in the game. It would have been easy for Smoak to have stopped caring after the ‘catch’.
• Roughned Odor tripped, coming out of the batter’s box on what should have been a fairly easy infield single. It couldn’t happen to a better guys.
• In the 9th, with 2 on, Gibby put Chris Coghlan in as a pinch hitter, so the Rangers brought in a lefty. I was sure Gibby would go to Donaldson or Tulo, but instead he went with Barney. Unless there is still soreness, I don’t understand the move. Thankfully, the Rangers infield is on our side and booted Barney’s grounder. Odor’s throw to first was spiked (I had flashbacks).
• Elvis Andrus made an error, again reminding me of happy moments in our past. I think the Rangers infielders are double agents.
• Russell Martin wasn’t thrilled with being hit by a pitch, early in the game.
• In the 8th, Odor hit a ground ball to Goins (playing on the right side of the infield, in the shift), Goins made a great glove hand flip, just getting the sliding Odor. The play was reviewed but we still got the call.

Jays of the Day: Estrada (.217 WPA) and Bautista (.292). Let’s give Goins an honorary JOD for starting that great double play (even if he had a -.075 at the plate).

Suckage: Carerra had a -.127.

This was funny:

We had 750 comments in the Game Thread. I led us to Victory. Yay me.