Decent start for Stroman ruined by lack of offense

Blue Jays 0 Twins 4

We finally get a good start of out Marcus Stroman and we don’t score. Sometimes the game isn’t fair.

Stroman went 7 innings, allowed 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk with 7 strikeouts. He did have some hard hit balls deep to the outfield, but only one of them left the park. He gave up a run in the second inning on a Eddie Rosario homer. And 1 in the 3rd, on a walk, 2 singles and a RBI ground out. He only had two clean innings, his first inning and his last winning, but he only gave up more than one base runner in two inning, the 3rd and the 5th, where Aledmys Diaz made an error, but we got a quick double play, then Joe Mauer singled.

He wasn’t great, but it was a good start, ruined by a lack off offense.

Hopefully it is a step in the right direction.

We had our chances, we had 6 hits, 3 walks and a hit batter. Kevin Pillar was the only Jay with 2 hits, and he walk and he had a very nice catch in CF (where he rolled his hand a bit, it looked, for a moment, like he might be hurt).

Diaz had our only extra base hit, a double, and he walked. We had 2 runner on with 1 out in the 2nd, 4th and 5th innings, but couldn’t score.

Curtis Granderson had a particularly tough day, 3 at bats, 3 strikeouts (and he was hit by pitch). Russell Martin hit two rockets that found gloves. Lourdes Gurriel was 0 for 3.

Yesterday’s hero, Kendrys Morales was 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.

Teoscar had a dumb moment, getting caught stealing second in the 8 with us down two, 2 out and Pillar at bat. Can’t give away outs down 2 in the eight. He did have a nice catch in the 8th.

Twins pitcher Fernando Romero, making his first MLB start, did a nice job, going 5.2 with 4 hits, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. I thought we should have been more patient with him. We really should have been able to score getting 3.1 innings against a crappy Twins bullpen.

John Gibbons got tossed in the 3rd inning. Diaz on first, Teoscar at the plate, full count, Diaz runs, but stops thinking it was ball 4 (he may have heard someone say it was ball four), but Twins appealed to first on Teoscar’s swing and it was called a strike. Diaz was out easy. Gibby didn’t like the swing ball (I didn’t either, Teoscar had two check swings called strikes that at bat, I didn’t agree with either of them, and I don’t think Gibby did either. It seemed like a quick thumb, Gibby was in the dugout. You should let him blow off some steam.

Aaron Loup had a tough 8th. He gave up 3 straight 1-out singles, a sac fly, a walk and was taken out with 2 out and the bases loaded.Carlos Ramirez came him, getting his first walk since his callup, he gave up a bases loaded walk and got a strikeout.

Jays of the Day: Let’s give one to Pillar (.077 WPA, plus the great catch). Stroman deserves honorable mention,

Suckage: Solarte (-.137, for an 0 for 4), Hernandez (-.134, 1 for 4, plus a stupid caught stealing of second, with 2 out in the 8, with the team down by 2, just dumb baseball), and Gurriel (-.129, 0 for 3, he did show a nice arm turning a double play).

We had 501 comments in the GameThread, not bad for a weekday afternoon game (which wasn’t all that exciting). Alan F led the way. Good job sir.