Great start from Jamie Garcia wasted, Jays lose

Blue Jays 1 Phillies 2

That game was all about the starting pitchers.

Aaron Nola had a no-hitter going until 2 outs in the 7th. In the 7th, he gave up 2 walks, and looked like he was tiring. After the second walk, the Phillies had a mound visit and I thought they might take him out. Instead he pitched to Russell Martin and gave up hit first hit of the game, which scored Justin Smoak to tie the game. That was the last pitch of the game for Nola.

Nola went 6.2, allowed just the 1 hits, 1 earned, 3 walks (I thought we could have had more walks, but we weren’t very patient), with 10 strikeouts. He left the game after 113 pitches, but he didn’t look like he was laboring until the 7th. It’s more impressive considering there was a rain delay. Nola was helped out by some terrific plays made behind him. Scott Kingery made two terrific plays at short.

Jaime Garcia was also very good. 7 complete, just 5 hits, no walks, 5 strikeouts. His earned run was a solo homer for Maikel Franco. Garcia threw just 73 pinches, but left after being pinch hit for, if it was a AL game he would have gone longer. And, as it turned out, he likely should have.

Joe Biagini didn’t have the same success, he gave up a home run on his first pitch. That put the Jays in a bad spot, down a run with only the 9th ahead. He did get the next two outs, but was pulled so Aaron Loup could face lefty Odubel Herrera.

We had a shot in the bottom of the inning. Josh Donaldson beat out an infield hit to start the inning (just our 3rd hit of the game). Smoak stuck out chasing and Teoscar hit into a 5-4-3 double play, swinging at the first pitch he sad.

Jays of the Day: Garcia (.262 WPA) and Martin (.152).

Suckage: Biagini (-.258), Granderson (-.162), Maile (-.110), Smith Jr (-.102), Hernandez (-.266) and Smoak (-.106)

There was a fair bit of concern about Russell Martin playing short but only had one chance and he made a nice play on it. And he had a single go by him. I don’t think he had a shot on the play. I think we worried too much. I wouldn’t want him out there with a ground ball pitcher, but Garcia had a ton of fly outs.

We had 634 comments in the GameThread. BlueJayEMT squeaked out a win. Good job sir.