Offense takes the night off, the Blue Jays lose in Tampa

Blue Jays 2 Rays 6

Just one of those Tropicana Field games. We’d hit the ball hard and it went into someone’s glove, the Rays hit something softly and it goes for a double.

It looked good when we scored in the first inning. Granderson led off with a double and scored on 2 sac flies.

When Granderson came out of the game, in the bottom of the 2nd inning, we should have known nothing good was going to happen today. Granderson has hamstring tightness. No word yet on whether he will be missing more games.

Dalton Pompey took his place and led off the third with a single, but we couldn’t score him. We wouldn’t get another base runner until Aledmys Diaz homered in the 8th (I guess that’s not really a base runner).

4 hits on the day, not good enough.

We had a Tropicana Special in the 9th. Teoscar Hernandez popped one up, way up. It hit a catwalk and third baseman Matt Duffy, even though he got under it, had it go in and out of his glove for an error.

Kevin Pillar’s little 9 game hit streak came to an end. But he wasn’t the only one not to hit: Donaldson, Solarte, Hernandez, Morales and Gurriel all had 0 fors.

Speaking of not good enough, J.A. Happ had his troubles too. He went 5.2, allowed 4 hits, 4 walks, with 3 strikeouts, giving up 3 earned. That’s the most walks and the fewest strikeouts he’s had in a start this year. And it was his shortest start since April 3rd.

We got our first look at Jake Petricka. He wasn’t bad. 1.1, 3 hits, 1 earned, no walks and 2 strikeouts. He got a bit unlucky when Matt Duffy just kind of fought off an inside pitch and had it go right down the left field line for a double. Not hit well but still a double.

Tim Mayza continues to be Tim Mayza, It seems like he should have success, everyone talks him up, he throws the ball hard, not terrible control, but Brad Miller took a hanging slider and hit it out for a 2-run homer. Next batter, Johnny Field pulled one over Dalton Pompey’s head in left (I thought Pompey should have caught it, he took a slightly funny route, but the ball was hit hard and deep). He got 2 strikeouts, but gave up 2 runs in his inning.

No Jays of the Day.

Suckage: Happ (-.137) and I’m giving on to Mayza even though he was only a -.047 (since the team was down 2 runs before he gave up the home run). And let’s give one to the entire offense, minus Granderson and Diaz. 5 hits on the

Diaz and Lourdes Gurriel turned the prettiest double play in the first inning. Diaz made a nice grab on a grounder and then a glove hand flip to Gurriel who made a strong throw to first.

We had 551 comments in the GameThread. lalalaprise led the way again. Good job.