The 9th inning comeback falls short, Jays lose to Red Sox

Red Sox 6 Blue Jays 5

At least the bottom of the 9th was exciting. We got the tying run on first. That’s better than most games.

It was yet another game where we should have scored more. Where we wasted a good start from our starting pitcher. Where one bad inning sunk us.

Marcus Stroman wasn’t great, he seemed to be having blister issues again, but he should have had a win. 6 innings, 7 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, no walks, with 4 strikeouts. He gave up a home run to Hanley Ramirez.

The other run came in the 2nd inning. With 2 outs, Ramirez doubled and Christian Vazquez singled (his first of 4 hits on the day), giving runners on the corners. During the next at bat, Vazquez stole second (looked like a delayed steal) and Raffy Lopez threw the ball into center field. It was noted in the GameThread that Marcus didn’t get out of the way on the play, and Lopez was trying to throw around him, but he should have ate the ball.

When Marcus left the game, it was 3-2.

Our bullpen had a rough 7th inning.

• Danny Barnes started the inning and things didn’t go well. Ramirez singled and Vazquez homered. An out and a walk later....
• Aaron Loup came in. He gave up a ground rule double, a intentional walk and a seeing eye infield single, to score a run.
• Ryan Tepera in. A four pitch walk scored another run. After that he got a 6-2-3 double play to end the inning.

But 4 runs score, changing our 3-2 lead to us trailing 6-3.

Tom Koehler pitched a scoreless 8th, giving up a double and getting a strikeout. Leonel Campos got the 9th, giving up just a walk.

On offense, we had 8 hits, 7 walks. Drew Pomeranz wasn’t sharp but we didn’t make him pay.

It looked good in the first.

Steve Pearce started the game off with a walk. Josh Donaldson erased him with a double play. After that Justin Smoak walked, and we got back-to-back doubles from Jose Bautista and Kendrys Morales, both on curves on the outside edges of the zone, both slashed the opposite way. We scored 2, before Kevin Pillar popped out on a pitch well above the strike zone.

We got 1 more in the 4th. Pillar led off with a double and Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins singled. It looked like we had something going. But, Lopez popped up a bunt for the first out (bunts with runners on first and second are stupid) and Pearce hit into a double play.

We scored 2 to make it close in the 9th. Lopez walked and Smoak homered. Bautista walked to put the tying run on first. Unfortunately Kendrys popped out and that was the game.

We had chances:

• 2 on, 1 out in the 2nd, but Pearce flied out and Donaldson struck out.
• Bases loaded, 1 out in the 5th, but Pillar ground one to third, and Rafael Devers threw home, getting the out at the plate. Then Barney lined a hard one, right into the pitcher’s glove.
• Goins reached 2nd on an error, to start the 6th, and that’s where he stayed.

That was the end of the run. After the Sox scored 4 in the 7th, we didn’t get another base runner, until Lopez walked to lead off the 9th.

Every Jay in the starting lineup reached base. Pearce (0 for 4 with a walk) and Donaldson (1 for 5 with 2 strikeouts) both had a tough night, stranding 11 runs between them.

The best part of the game was Kevin Pillar making this catch:

Jays of the Day: Stroman (.164 WPA). Morales had the number until the pop out in the 9th, he dropped from .173 to .093.

Suckage: Barnes (-.384), Loup (-.183), Pearce (-.163) and Donaldson (-.143).

We had 334 comments in the GameThread. I led the way.