Blue Jays batter Boston

Blue Jays 10 Red Sox 4

I will admit, there are few things I like better than the Red Sox losing. Blue Jays winning might be one. Both in the same game? That’s pretty tough to beat.

J.A. Happ did a pretty good job, if you ignore that he seemed to be channeling the Happ from a few years ago, the one that would get a couple of strikes and then waste pitches until the count was full.

He came out of the game after 5.2 innings and 106 pitches. He allowed 6 hits, 3 runs, only 1 earned, 3 walks with 3 strikeouts.

He gave up his unearned runs in the 2nd inning. The inning started with Sam Travis hitting a fly ball over Jose Bautista, which really should have caught. It wasn’t an easy catch, but Jose turned the wrong way and was a little late on. A walk later, Christian Vazquel hit a soft grounder back to Happ. Happ grabbed it, turned and threw,,,,to center field. Happ seemed to be confused over who was going to cover second. It should have been a double play, to end the innnig. Instead he had the bases loaded, 1 out.

Next batter tapped a ball in front of the plate and Raffy Lopez smartly grabbed it and stepped on the plate for a force out. Unfortunately, Eduardo Nunez followed that with a single, scoring 2.

Our bullpen did alright:

• Dominic Leone came in, to relieve Happ, in the 6th, with 2 on and 2 out. He gave up a run scoring single but got Mookie Betts to strikeout. He gave up a walk and single to start the 7th.
• Aaron Loup came in and got a ground out, that scored the runner on third.
• Ryan Tepera got the last 2 outs of the 7th and pitched around a ground rule double to put up a scoreless 8th. He was throwing hard. Hit 98 on statscast.
• Tim Mayza pitched a nice quick 9th.

And our offense did alright too. Kendrys Morales hit a 3-run homer in the first. Bautista hit a solo shot in the 3rd, making up for his mistake in the 2nd inning. Lopez hit a 2 run homer in 6. And Justin Smoak hit a solo homer in the 9th.

The non-homer runs came on a Darwin Barney double (just before Lopez’ homer) that was only a few feet short a homer and a Morales double in the 9th, followed quickly by a Kevin Pillar single off the monster, bringing in our 10th run.

We had 14 hits on the night. Steve Pearce had three (including a double to start off the game on the right foot). Bautista (homer, double), Morales (homer, double, 4 RBI), Ryan Goins (singles, with a walk) and Lopez (single, homer) had 2 hits each. The only Jay not to get a hit was Donaldson.

Bautista was also robbed of a walk on one of the worst strike 3 calls you’ll ever see. Today’s plate ump was....creative.

I thought Lopez did a very nice job behind the plate. He seems to be a good pitch ‘framer’. He did allow 1 wild pitch, but that pitch was a long ways off and short of the plate. And he’s up to 3 home runs in limited at bats.

Jays of the Day: Morales (.212 WPA), Tepera (.123) and Happ (.116).

Suckage: Leone had a -.119.

We had 423 comments in a very pleasant GameThread. I led the way to victory. I’m taking some cheese doodles out of petty cash.

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