Bautista homers, Jays beat Royals

Blue Jays 8 Royals 2

First game of this series that doesn’t make you want to break things.

We scored some:

• Jose Bautista drove in 4 runs. A 2-run homer, a bases loaded walk and a single through a drawn in infield.
• Josh Donaldson drove in 2 on a bases loaded double.
• Russell Martin made a great slide to score on a Kendrys Morales ground ball.
• Kevin Pillar scored on an error by Royals 3B, Cheslor Cuthbert, and Kevin Pillar scored on the play.

We had 11 hits. Pillar had 3 of them. Nice to see him hitting again. Bautista had 2. The only starters not to hit were Dwight Smith (0 for 3, 2 k) and Morales (0 for 5, 2 k).

Francisco Liriano had a good start. 6 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. Nice to see him get through 6 innings with just 1 walk.

The bullpen kept the Royals off the board for 3 innings. Danny Barnes, Dominic Leone and Roberto Osuna pitched an inning each. Great to see Osuna out there.

The most interesting play of the game was in the 8th. Eric Hosmer lined a soft single into center, Kevin Pillar made a nice play and a nice throw to second, nailing Hosmer (down by 6 it was pretty stupid of him to take that chance). And speaking stupid, Lorenzo Cain, who was on second, watched the play unfold at second base and walked to home plate. Because he was slow, his run didn’t count because the play at second happened before he crossed the plate. The Royals asked for a review, but Hosmer was out at second.

Jays of the Day: Bautista (.253 WPA), Martin (.132), Pearce (.095) and Pillar (.094).

Suckage: Morales (-.120 for his 0 for 5).

You guys had 502 comments in the GameThread, while I was out sweating a bike ride. 2-day break ride and the wind was against us both ways. It was tough riding today. TimmyMax led us to victory. Great job.