Terrible start from Happ, Jays lose

Mariners 9 Blue Jays 3

In a run of crappy starts, that one was as crappy as any.

We had the J.A. Happ I came to hate, back in his first stint with the Jays. Lots of nibbling and working his way to full counts. He gave up a grand slam in the first inning. 000

Happ fought through 3.1 innings, allowed 10 hits, 7 earned, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts and 2 home runs. He just didn’t have it. It was his first start this year with less than 5 strikeouts. It was also his first start of the season with less strikeouts than innings pitched.

Entering the game with a 3.67 ERA, he left the game with a 4.80 ERA.

Jake Petricka wasn’t much better. He gave up a run in 1.2 inning. I’m imagining he’ll be heading back to Buffalo after the game, for a fresh arm.

Aaron Loup pitched us 2 scoreless innings. Tim Mayza gave up a long homer to center, his only run against in 2 innings. He also had a line drive barely miss his head.

We really could use a ‘long man’ in the pen. I thought Loup could have gone further, but he was up to 41 pitches. I’m guessing there will be a move tomorrow.

On offense we didn’t do all that much. Russell Martin had a 2-run homer in the second and we got a run in the 8. After loading the bases with no outs, and thinking we’d at least make the game a little closer, Yangervis Solarte hit into a double play, scoring our second run and then Teoscar Hernandez struck out.

We hit into 3 double plays, anytime it looked like we were going to get something going, we found a way to end all hope quickly.

We had 8 hits (half as many as the M’s). Josh Donaldson had 3, no one else had more than one. Nice to see Josh hitting again.

Hernandez (0 for 4, 3 strikeouts) and Kendrys Morales (0 for 3, but did make good contact twice, which is little help at the moment, I know).

We did have a nice defensive play. Donaldson saved us some more runs against, in the fourth inning. Bases loaded, softly bouncing grounder down the line, Josh waited for it, with his foot on the bag and then made a nice throw to first. Saved at least 1 run.

Jays of the Day? Let’s give one to Josh (.077 WPA, plus the good defense) and Martin (.081).

Suckage: Happ (-.433) and Hernandez (-.115).

We had 677 comments in the GameThread. Not terrible considering we were down 4-0 after the top of the first. TimmyMax led us to, well, crushing defeat, but still good job sir.