Silent bats spoil decent debut by Bolsinger in 6-0 defeat

Clevelands 6 (runs) Blue Jays 4 (singles, 0 runs)

What happens when an unstoppable force meets a very movable object? The answer played out at Rogers Centre Tuesday evening, and it was a bleak answer. Carlos Carrasco is an excellent pitcher, the Cleveland bullpen has been lights out for weeks, and the Blue Jays fielded an anemic lineup. The result was the Jays being shutout, scratching out just four singles, of which two were erased on double plays. Enough said about that.

The brightest spot was Mike Bolsinger, who turned in a solid if not overwhelming debut start in his Blue Jays debut. His overall line was just okay, allowing 2 runs on 3 hits (two doubles) with 4 walks and 4 strikeouts in 5.2 innings. But he kept the Jays in the game, which is as much as one could reasonable have asked for.

The pleasant surprise was the effectiveness of his curveball, which got a lot of swings and misses. He did issue too many walks, and unsurprisingly they came back to bite him. He walked the first two batters of the 2nd inning, Lonnie Chisenhall doubled home one and the second scored on a fielder's choice. That was unfortunately all the margin Cleveland would need.

Relievers, John Gibbons used a few:

• Dominic Leone got the last out of the 6th to strand rnners at 2nd/3rd after Bolsinger was chased by a double. He struck out the first batter of the 7th, but was yanked after a walk. I thought that was a little hasty of Gibby, especially given that he went to....
• J.P. Howell, who had another bad outing. He walked the first batter and then gave up a ground rule double to plate the third run. He held the damage with a popout but with the game still reasonably close and Cleveland threatening to blow it open went to Jason Grilli because....reasons? He did strike out Edwin to quash the threat.
• Aaron got the 8th, and ended any residual hope of the comeback. A leadoff single was erased on a double play, but a hit by pitch and single preceded a 3-run bomb by Yan Gomes which was the coup de grace.
• Ryan Tepera pitched a very effective 9th inning.

Oh, and Kendrys Morales came out of the game, with some sort of hamstring (?) injury either incurred yesterday or today. Just for some icing on the cake.

Source: FanGraphs

Jays of the Day: None. Bolsinger would be closest to deserving one.

Suckage: The entire offence - because they all did so little, none hit the number but they combined for -0.433 WPA. J.P. Howell (-0.80 in three batters) gets one, Loup can one too.

Tomorrow at 7:05 EDT the Jays will again have a series rubbermatch, Danny Salazar facing facing Francisco Liriano absent his whisperer Russell Martin.