Poor offense and defense, Jays lose to Cubs

Blue Jays 3 Cubs 4

Nick Tepesch had a tough first inning, for most of it he was no where near the plate. He gave up a lead off walk, got a pop out, then hit Kris Bryant with a pitch that was closer to the plate than most of his previous pitches. Another walk loaded the bases.

Then Ian Happ lined one at Jose Bautista. Jose could have really helped us out by making a, not too difficult, catch. At least he kept it close and the Cubs only scored one. Tepesch got a ground ball to second, that Rob Refsnyder threw high to Darwin Barney, but Barney did a nice job of going up for it, touching second and making a good throw to first. Nick did pretty good to get out of the inning with just the one run.

After that Tepesch was much better. He gave up a lead off single in the second but got out of the inning on a popped up bunt, right back to himself, that turned into an easy double play. There was a double in the 3rd inning.

In the 4th he gave up a deep deep lead off homer to Ian Happ. A single later, he got an nice double play ball to Justin Smoak, but Barney airmailed the return throw well over Tepesch’s head at first.

With a runner on second and 1 out, Jays walked the 8th hitter and Jose Quintana bunted the runners to second and third. I really didn’t like the IW, I’d rather face the 8-9 hitters, than the 9-1 hitters, adding in that you allowed the pitcher to bunt. Had you gone after the 8th guy (presuming you got him) the pitcher would have had to swing. My theory is ‘if you can’t get the 8th hitter out, you shouldn’t be in the majors’.

After the bunt, Gibby pulled Nick and brought in Danny Barnes. Barnes got the last out of the inning.

Nick went 3.2, allowed 5 hits, 2 earned, 3 walks with 3 strikeouts. Ignoring the first inning, he was pretty good.

Barnes finished off the 4th inning and pitched a nice quick 5th. He had a bit of trouble in the 6th. A lead off walk to Happ, moved to second on a ground out and scored on a ground ball that Barney got a glove on but couldn’t corral. Barney really needed to keep it in the infield, as Happ scored from second.

Matt Dermody got the last out of the 6th. He had a bit of trouble in the 7th, giving up a run on 2 singles, one a line drive in front of Bautista (yeah an outfielder with range would have had it, the other a bloop that was just beyond Barney that scored the Cubs 4th run. Dermody got the first 2 outs of the 8, and then Leone came in to get the last out.

That was a stupid move. Ezequiel Carrera came in to play right at the start of the inning, and when Leone came in, Carrera came out in a double switch, with Aoki going to right, hitting in the pitcher’s spot and Carrera coming out for Leone.

But it really didn’t matter, we went down 1, 2, 3 in the 9th, with another great play by Cubs SS Javier Baez thrown in, just to make it that much worse. But, if we made the proper move, Carrera leads off the inning and who knows.

Offensively, like most games this season, we didn’t do enough.

We scored our 2 runs in the 4th, and it was the bottom of the order who did the work. Kevin Pillar singled, Barney doubled and Raffy Lopez drove them home with a single.

We got another run in the 8th, Steve Pearce reached on a, 2-out, single plus error from Kris Bryant, putting him on second, and Pillar drove him home with out 6th hit of the game. Pinch hitter Kendrys Morales ground out weakly to end the inning.

The top of the order, Bautista, Donaldson and Smoak went 0 for 11 with 4 strikeouts.

Pearce and Pillar had 2 hits each. Barney and Lopez had our other 2 hits.

Jays of the Day: Barney had the number, .174, but I can’t give him it. That overthrow was costly and he really really needed to keep the ball on the infield in the 6th.

Suckage: Tepesch (-.117, it would be -.232 if you included his bat), Bautista (.103, 0 for 4, 3 k) and Goins (-.096, 0 for 2).

That one sure showed how crappy our defense has been. We really could use a win tomorrow.

418 comments in a slowish GameThread. TimmyMax led the way. Good job.