Martin and Morales homer, Jays beat White Sox

White Sox 3 Blue Jays 7

I needed a win today. Happy Father’s Day to me.

J.A. Happ looked very good. He had one bad inning, giving up 4 singles and 3 runs in the fifth inning. It looked bad, since we hadn’t come close to scoring up to that point. After the first 3 singles, and a run had scored, Melky Cabrera bunted right down the first base line. I hate the move, because they had Happ on the ropes, but an out later a single scored 2 runs.

Happ went 6.2, allowed 8 hits, 3 earned, no runs with 9 strikeouts. I like that our starters seem to be going a little deeper into games of late.

We did finally score. We got:

• A run in the fifth: Steve Pearce led off with a single. He moved to second on a ground out and scored on Kevin Pillar’s single.
• Three runs in the sixth: With 2 outs, Troy Tulowitzki dribbled one down the third base line, but it hit the bag, and Todd Frazier couldn’t make the play. Russell Martin followed with a homer (it bounce off the top of the wall and over). A Steve Pearce single and a Ryan Goins triple scored another run.
• Three runs in the seventh: Jose Bautista singled and Kendrys Morales hit a massive homer, it went off the ‘Level of Excellence’. A Justin Smoak single, a Martin walk, and a Steve Pearce doubled in Smoak. A fan touched the ball, or Martin would, likely, have scored as well.

We had 13 hits, including the 2 homers, 1 triple and 2 doubles. Steve Pearce went 3 for 4, after we complained that he was playing over Smith (though he did have a ball go over his head that likely should have been caught). Tulo and Kendrys each had 2 hits. Everyone else, in the starting lineup, had 1 hit.

Danny Barnes came in with 2 out and a runner on second and got out of the 7th. He allowed a walk in a scoreless 8th, going 1.1 with 2 strikeouts.

Roberto Osuna pitched the 9th, getting 2 k in a clean inning.

Jays of the Day: Martin (.275 WPA), Goins (.143) and Morales (.125).

No Suckage Jays. Jose had the low mark at -.079.

We had 401 comments in the GameThread. I led us to victory. Yay me.