Great start from Biagini wasted, Jays lose in 13 innings

Blue Jays 0 Orioles 1 (13 innings)

Well, we should have been able to score in 13 innings. Aaron Loup gave up the winning run in his second inning of work. He had a good first inning, but two hard hit balls in the 13th ended the game.

The good news is: We got a great start from Joe Biagini.

He did give up a few hits the first 3 innings.

In the first, Tim Beckham led off with a chopper off the plate, that, by the time it came down, Josh Donaldson didn’t have a play and then Manny Machado hit a slow roller through the infield. I was thinking it was going to be one of those games. But Joe got 2 strikeouts and a ground out to get out of trouble.

In the second, he gave up a 1-out infield single and a 2-out walk, but again got out of it.

And, in the third, again the Orioles got 2 ground ball singles to start the inning, but again Joe got 2 strikeouts and a ground out.

After that, 4 perfect innings. In total 7 innings, 5 hits (all ground balls, all singles), 1 walk and 10 strikeouts.

The other good news was getting to see Carlos Ramirez pitch for his first time, in the MLB, going 2 innings, getting 2 strikeouts.

Our bullpen kept the O’s off the scoreboard:

• Tom Koehler pitched a scoreless 8th. He gave up a single, to start the 9th and Gibby brought in Matt Dermody.
• Who hit Chris Davis. Bringing in Danny Barnes.
• Who, got a pop up, strikeout and gave up a fly to the right field wall that Teoscar Hernandez took a circular route on, but he made the catch.
• Carlos Ramirez got the 10th. He got 2 strikeouts. He came back for the 11th, and he pitched a quick inning.
• Aaron Loup pitched the 12th. He got a pop out and a strikeout, before giving up a walk. Thankfully Steve Pearce made a nice play on a hard grounder down the line.
• Loup stayed in for the 14th. Manny Machado ground one down the third base line. Josh blocked it but couldn’t make a play. Jonathan Schoop hit a double to the wall to end.

On offense, we did very little. 7 hits and 2 walks, with 10 strikeouts.

We did have the odd chance:

• In the 9th, Kevin Pillar led off with a double. Jose Bautista, pinch hitting, chopped a grounder to short, and Pillar moved up to third. But, Darwin Barney (who I though we should have pinch hit for), hit a ground ball to second, and the throw home got Pillar.
• In the 7th, Ryan Goins led off with a walk. Barney bunted him to second and that’s where he stayed.
• Richard Urena led off the 12th with a double (first at bat of his MLB career) but we left him at second.
• In the 13th, Josh Donaldson had a 1-out a walk off someone the Orioles just made up. Like we believe there is a baseball player named Jimmy Yacabonis. He went to second on a Morales ground ball. Steve Pearce lined one to left but Trey Mancini made a terrific catch. Totally not fair.

We did get to see former Jay Miguel Castro, who had a 3 up 3 down 11th. He allowed a leadoff double, in the 12, to Richard Urena, but we couldn’t move him off second.

Jays of the Day: Biagini (.452 WPA, he was terrific), Barnes (.319), Ramire (.285), Urena (.152) and Urena (.170).

Suckage: Loup (-.215), Dermody (-.103), Pearce (-.215, not fair really, he would have had a JoD without that catch in left in the 13th), Morales (-.214), Barney (-.332, we really should have pinch hit for him earlier in the game), Hernandez (-.118, even with the nice double and the game saving catch), Maile (-.166, he should have been pinch hit for too), Saunders (-.118) and Refsnyder (-.107).

I’ll edit this down later, I know it is a mess, but the game was very long and I’ve had enough of baseball for one day.

We had 834 comments in that game thread. Citizen 928 led the way. Good Job.