Happ was great, Blue Jays win

Braves 4 Blue Jays 5

I’ll admit I was sweating through the 9th inning there. I was good with the decision to send J.A. Happ back out for the 9th, to give him a shot at the complete game. But after a ground out, 2 quick singles put the tying run at the plate, ended Happ’s day and made for a much tougher save for Ryan Tepera.

Tepera gave up a single (off the glove of Yangervis Solarte, I’m a believer that if you get a glove on it you should catch it, but it was a tough play). After a strikeout, another single (heck of an effort from Devon Travis to get to the ball, but he had no play) made it a 1-run game, with the tying run at second. But a nice gentle fly out ended thing, getting Tepera his 5th save of the year and Happ his 9th win.

Happ went 8.1, allowed just 6 hits, no walks with 8 strikeouts. The Jays PR department tweeted that Happ was the first MLB pitchers with 4 starts of 8 or more strikeouts with 0 walks. That’s a pretty cool stat.

His trade value just continues to go up.

On the offensive side, we had 8 hits and 5 walks. Kendrys Morales had the biggest hit, a 2-run homer. He had 2 hits on the day, bringing his average to .232. He’s having a nice June, hitting .293/.323/.466.

Aldemys Diaz was the other Jay with 2 hits, nice to see as he’s had a rough time since coming back from the DL. Randal Grichuk and Devon Travis each had a double.

Teoscar Hernandez (0 for 4, 3 k) and Kevin Pillar (0 for 4) had tough days at the plate. Kevin’s had a terrible June hitting just .188/.188/.348. All Blue Jays media should have to write “I won’t fall for Kevin Pillar’s quick start to the season, I won’t suggest he’s a changed man ever again.” 50 times on the blackboard.

Jays of the Day: Happ (.221 WPA), Morales (.227) and Grichuk (.129). And I’m giving one to Tepera (.085) because he did come into a tough spot.

Suckage? No one had the number, Hernandez has the low mark at -.084.

We had a nice time last night with Minor Leaguer. Drank too many beers (but then the game did draw our attention away from the beer) and ate too many chicken wings, but a fun time was had. I posted a picture on twitter.