Borucki was great, but Jays lose in extras

Tigers 3 Blue Jays 2 (10 innings)

Where has the offense gone?

We here hitting for a few days there and now we seem to have stopped.

Let’s start with the good stuff first. Ryan Borucki was terrific. 7 innings, 6 hits (all singles), no walks and 8 strikeouts.

It could have gone bad. After 1 out in the first, the Tigers hit 4 straight singles, scored a run and had the bases loaded. Then Ryan got a ground ball hit back to him, threw home and Luke Maile threw to first to get the double play and end the inning. Ryan wouldn’t give up another hit until the 6th inning.

In the 6th he gave up a leadoff single, then got a double play ball, but Lourdes Gurriel Jr. let the ball come to him, instead of going to get the ball and then his toss to Aledmys Diaz was a bit high and they only got the one out. That was costly. In his defense, the second base ump was a bit in the way, but he still should have moved up a could of steps, that’s all he needed to do.

Another single and a ground out and the Tigers got their second run. It goes down as an earned run, but it really wasn’t earned.

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Joe Biagini threw a very nice 8th inning.

Tyler Clippard had to fight his way through the 9th. He gave up a leadoff single and then got a popup down the right field line foul. Kendrys Morales got there but missed the catch (it wasn’t an easy catch). It was called an error, but that kind of play never gets called an error, scorer must not like Kendrys. It was too bad, because Clippard eneded up throwing 10 pitches that at bat to get the out. But he got a strikeout/throw out double play to get out of the inning.

Oh gave up a triple and a sac fly and took the loss. I didn’t think the triple was hit that well, but it went to the right spot.

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On offense we did nothing. It didn’t seem like Tigers starter Mike Fiers was throwing anything particularly special, but we only managed 3 hits off him in 8 innings. He was throwing strikes, but a lot of them looked like center cut strikes.

We did score in the 4th inning. Curtis Granderson singled, Randal Grichuk doubleds and, after a Yangervis Solarte popout (just a bad at bat), Granderson scored on Teoscar Hernandez ground out to short. We should have scored more.

I’d list everyone that didn’t hit, but that would be 6 guys. I thought Maile and Morales looked particularly terrible at the plate.

About the only other time I thought we had a shot at a run was a Diaz hard hit fly to left. It was caught at the wall, just a few feet from a homer.

We tied it up in the 9th against Tigers reliever Joe Jimenez. Solarte took a 1-out walk. Devon Travis pinch ran. Teoscar doubled off the wall in center (I thought it was out). At first I thought Devon should have scored, but the Tigers got the ball in quick. Tigers intentionally walked Kendrys. Bases loaded for Pillar but he popped one to short left. No chance to score. Justin Smoak pinch hit and swung almost out of his shoes at the first pitch and missed. Two balls later, Justin fouled off a high fastball to make it 2-2. He took a high pitch that I thought was on the inside corner but the ump didn’t. Full count. Next pitch was well of the plate and we are tied.

Luke Maile ground out and we got extras.

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Instead of rewriting all the above, I’m gong to just play-by-play the extra inning:

Top of the 10th, Seunghwan Oh pitching. Lots of defensive changes, biggest is Morales moving to third base.

First batter, ground ball on the left side, Morales went for it but Gurriel playing short, calls him off. Good play Lourdes. They get the out.

Niko Goodrum hits one that splits the outfielders in right and legs out a triple.

A fly out to right and Goodrum scores. Tigers up 3-2.

Bottom of the 10th.

Buck Farmer in to pitch for the Tigers.

Lourdes singles up the middle. Good start, Lourdes has speed.

In comes lefty Blaine Hardy.

Granderson up. I’m thinking bunt but we’ll see. And he does, nice bunt up the first base line. Gurriel to second. I’m not a fan of the bunt, but that was the right spot.

Grichuk up, time to play hero again. Grichuk chases high and outside for strike 3. Bad at bat.

Travis up, 2 outs. Strike on the outside corner. Travis grounds out to first. Sad ending.

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Jays of the Day: Borucki (.131 WPA), Hernandez (.383, our only batter with 2 hits), Smoak (.383).

Suckage: Pillar (-.370, 0 for 4, awful at bat in the 9th, he’s lost at the plate), Maile (-.262, 0 for 4, 2 k. I’m all for calling up Jansen), Grichuk (-.168, 1 for 5, 3 strikeouts. Terrible k in the 10th), Travis (-.148, 0 for 1 to end the game), Morales (-.144, 0 for 3, walk. It is April again), Diaz (-.103, 0 for 3) and Oh (-.288, not to apologize too much, but the triple really wasn’t hit hard just hit to the right spot, the fly out was worse).

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I hate the talk about ‘we don’t win without homers’. We didn’t hit at all and we are worried about the few at bats with runners in scoring position? I think we should worry about all the at bats. We have to hit batter at all times.

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We had 324 comments in the GameThread. I led us to defeat again.