One bad inning, Jays lose

Blue Jays 2 Tigers 5

So, one bad inning.

Jamie Garcia had a good first inning and then the wheels came off in the second. He gave up 6 hits in the inning. Lots of seeing eye hits, but then balls that were hit hard. There was a fly ball just out of Kevin Pillar’s reach that went for a triple, but mostly ground balls going between infielders. They were hard hit ground balls, but he needed a bit of luck, a ground ball going right at someone.

The bullpen did a good job 6.1 innings, just 1 run again, a solo homer off Tyler Clippard. Danny Barnes (1.1), Joe Biagini (3.0) and John Axford (1.0) all kept the Tigers off the board.

Offensively, we had our chances, but didn’t make the most of them. A line that has been in 90% of these recaps.

We scored 2 in the 6th. Aledmy Diaz walked and Teoscar Hernandez triples (a ball hit a mile to dead center, CF Leonys Martin didn’t exactly take a great route, but it was hit a long way) and Kendrys Morales hit a deep fly to center, almost as far as Hernandez, but Martin caught that one, so it was only a sac fly.

In the 7th, Russell Martin led off with a single, Devon Travis replaced him with a force out. Then, an out later, Diaz lined one just short of the wall in right, Devon scored on it, but after a few moments, the umpires ruled the ball bounced over the fence and off the railing above the fence. It was a bit confusing, because Buck was talking about a fan touching it, but no fan came close. But the railing was above the wall, and the top of the wall was the ‘home run line’. Instead of a run scoring, we had runners on second and third, but Teoscar flied out to medium right, to end the inning.

In the 8th, Justin Smoak walked and Morales singled with 1 out. Pillar followed with a weak fly out, then Russell Martin was hit by pitch (it looked like he kind of put his arm in the way of the ball, but he had a 3 ball count, it would have been a walk anyway. Devon Travis followed. He got a really tough call on a 0-1 count. The pitch looked to be at least a couple of inches off the plate, but was called a strike. Travis basically had to swing at the next pitch just off the plate, and hit into a weak ground out. Robo umps, we need you to take over.

We had 7 hits, 3 of them by Hernandez, who had his best game in a long while. On the other hand Yangervis Solarte (0 for 5, 2 k) and Pillar (0 for 4) looked terrible at the plate.

Jays of the Day? Let’s give one to Hernandez and give another to Biagini for pitching the 3 scoreless innings, allowing us not to used everyone in the pen.

Suckage: Garcia (-.267 WPA), Solarte (-.143), Pillar (-.138, he did have a very nice catch in the outfield) and Travis (-.101)

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