No offense, Jays lose to Rays

Blue Jays 0 Rays 2

The good news?

Tom Koehler was better than we expected he would be. He managed to pitch 5 innings without allowing a home run. He didn’t give up much for deep flies at all.

He gave up his only run in the second inning. He gave up a lead off walk, a 1-out single and hit batter, loading the bases. A Daniel Robertson sac fly scored the run. He did load the bases in the fifth inning. After 2 outs, Evan Longoria doubled. A walk and a hit batter loaded things up, but Corey Dickerson lined one right at Steve Pearce.

In total, 5 innings, 4 hits (3 singles and a double), 3 walks, 2 hit batters and 7 strikeouts for Koehler. He threw hard, first inning I saw 95-96 on the fastball. That dropped to 93 later. He threw too many pitches, he was 98 pitches after 5, but, after all the homers yesterday, I was worried Koehler would give up a few today.

Offensively....well we made Alex Cobb pitch. He was over 60 pitches after 3 inning and out of the game after 4.1. But we couldn’t score. We seemed to get to full counts and then watch strike 3 go by.

We had chances:

• Darwin Barney and Steve Pearce had back-to-back singles in the third. But Josh Donaldson watched strike 3 go by and Justin Smoak ground out to end the inning.
• Miguel Montero (walk) and Ryan Goins (single) started off the fifth nicely. But Barney bunted into a easy force at 3rd base. I hated the play. Slow runner at second you are just asking for a force out at 3rd. Dumb baseball. Pearce lined out, Donaldson walked (bases loaded) and Justin Smoak worked the count full before hitting a ball deep to right center, but Kevin Kiermaier made an amazing catch.

We came very close that inning. Before walking, Josh hit a ball down the left field line that was called fair on the field, scoring 2 runs, but was called foul after review. I thought it caught the edge of the line. That and Kiermaier’s catch were big plays in the game.

In total we had 5 hits and 2 walks. Steve Pearce had 2 of the hits. The 2 through 6 spots were 1 for 19.

I gotta rant a little. 2 out, bottom of the 9th and you don’t pinch hit for Ryan Goins??? Gibby had Aoki out to pinch hit for Robsynder (should we get there) but lets Goins hit. I just don’t understand.

The bullpen did it’s job, until 2 outs in the 8:

• Dominic Leone struck out the side in a perfect sixth inning.
• Tim Mayza only struck out 2 in his perfect seventh inning. He also got the first out of the 8th.
• Danny Barnes gave up a solo homer to Corey Dickerson, before getting the 3rd out of the 8th. Dickerson scored both runs for the Rays.

Jay of the Day: Koehler (.112 WPA).

Suckage: Smoak (-.240, 0 for 4), Bautista (-.113, 0 for 4) and Pillar (-.108, 0 for 4).

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