A big 8th inning powers the Blue Jays to a win

Mariners 2 Blue Jays 5

It took us a while to get scoring, but that 4 run 8th felt like a dozen runs. About time we put up a crooked number. In the 8th we had doubles from Josh Donaldson, Yangervis Solarte and Justin Smoak. Then an almost double from Kevin Pillar, he was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Then Russell Martin doubled. After an out (I’m disappointed Gurriel), Luke Maile then singled home Martin (nice slide Russell). Curtis Granderson struck out to end the inning, his first at bat in a little while.

Up until the 8th, we only had 1 run, a monster homer to center for Teoscar Hernandez.

We did get our hits. After being no-hit yesterday, we had 12 today. 7 of the hits were for extra bases. Luke Maile hit a triple, the first triple of his major league career. Hernandez almost had a triple, he hit one down the right field line and would have had a triple, if it wasn’t for fan interference. Originally, the umpires awarded Teoscar a triple but, after Mariners manager Scott Servais complained, they moved him back to second. Folks, if you are going to sit near the field, you are going to have to learn not to reach for fair balls.

Everyone in the Jays starting lineup had a hit, except Lourdes Gurriel (who did have two hard hit balls caught) and Dalton Pompey (who just missed a double by a few feet, lining a ball down the left field line, and also had a great at bat for a walk in the 7th).

Hernandez had 3 hits, the homer, the double and a single. Pillar and Maile had 2 hits each.

If I said that Jaime Garcia pitched 5 innings, allowed just 3 hits and 1 earned run, you’d think it was pretty good, right? I could add in that there was an unearned run, unearned because of a error that Garcia made, still is a good outing.

Well, he also gave up 5 walks and a hit batter, and, the fact he just allowed 2 runs was a bit of a feat of magic. But, don’t complain about magic, when it is on our side.

Once again, our bullpen was terrific. Seunghwan Oh, John Axford and Ryan Tepera pitched a scoreless inning each.

Tyler Clippard picked up the save, his first of the year.

We also had some very good defense. Martin was particularly terrific at third base. Gurriel made a terrific play in the first inning. With a runner on third, a hard hit ball to short, Gurriel made a great throw home to get the runner. He also made a nice catch on a line drive. I could grow to like watching him at short. I’m sure his BABIP luck will come around at some point. Smoak made a nice pick on a throw in the dirt.

Jays of the Day: Solarte (.180 WPA), Hernandez (.148) and Smoak (.119). The bullpen as a group deserves a JoD.

Suckage: Martin had the number (-.107) but I think his defense more than made up for that.

We had 1004 comments the GameThread. Pretty good, considering how bad the team has been lately. delv213 led the way to the win. Excellent job.