Poor defense, Jays lose

Blue Jays 2 Red Sox 5

I watch Groundhog Day a couple of days ago, so it shouldn’t surprise me that we get to watch the same stuff each day. Bad defense.

Today?

• First inning, runner on first, easy ground ball to Devon Travis. Travis could have thrown to second, maybe have a shot at a double play. Or he could have thrown to first, take the easy out. Instead he tries to tag the runner. The reason I like players to go to a bag is the bag doesn’t dodge. You can tag it easy. Players tend to dodge, and dodge he did. Potential double play becomes no one out and runners on first and second. It ended up costing a run.
• Easy fly ball to left, Hernandez takes a weird route and then decides to let it hit off the wall instead of, you know, catching it. That runner would score.
• Loup hits Steve Pearce with a pitch. Next batter hits a bouncer past Travis. I really though he should have had it.
• Mookie Betts tries to steal second. Russell Martin’s throw is on time (and honestly, just about exactly where you’d want it to be), Aledmys Diaz doesn’t make the catch. Fortunately, Betts later that at bat, Betts tried to go to third and this time Martin’s throw was caught.

I thought Marcus Stroman pitched better than his line looks. 5 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts. He gave up a first inning homer to Xander Bogaerts and threw a lot of pitches that inning (helped along by Devon’s error). He was perfect the next 3 innings (there was a replay review that we won, Sandy Leon singled, went for second, Randal Grichuk’s throw was very good, tag was a little weird and he was called safe. Very quick review changed that).

He had more trouble in the 5th, allowing 2 runs (one hit was the misplay by Teoscar). One run scored on a hard hit ball that hit Marcus in the leg. Diaz made a nice play to get the out at first.

The bullpen had their moments:

• Loup walked a man, hit Pearce and had the soft single that got past Travis for a run scoring single and he was out of the game.
• Jake Petricka came in with runners on first and second and no out, and got out of the inning without another run scoring.
• Ryan Tepera pitched, after being activated today. He didn’t get to pitch in a rehab game. He allowed a walk, but got out of the inning, getting 1 strikeout.
• Jaime Garcia, as well just off the DL, he got 1 rehab inning, had a tough time. 3 walks. But he did get a double play.
• Chris Rowley came in with 2 on and 2 out and got the last out.

On offense, we only in the 3rd inning. Randal Grichuk led off with a double, an out later, Teoscar homered.

We had 8 hits. 2 each for Grichuk and Martin.

There were 0 fors from Yangervis Solarte (0 for 5, 2 k, looked terrible at the plate), Morales (0 for 3, walk, robbed on a line drive) and Dwight Smith (0 for 3, walk, 2 k).

Smith struck out in the biggest at bat of the game. In the 8th, Smoak, Martin and Travis all singled to load the bases, with 2 outs. But Smith struck out on three pitches, chasing off the plate for strike 3.

We go into the All-Star break on a two-game losing streak. 4 days off, I can use them, but we’ll still have posts up. There will be roster moves coming before our next game. We need a couple of position players.

Jay of the Day: Grichuk (.105 WPA, single, double and walk, plus the nice throw from center). Teoscar had the number too (.113), but that non-catch was terrible, so I’m not giving him one.

Suckage: Stroman had the number (-.176) but much of that was to do with bad defense so I’ll spare him. Solarte (-.206) and Smith (-.108) get no such break.

We had 308 comments in the GameThread. I led us to defeat.