Less than exciting baseball, Jays lose to Royals

Blue Jays 2 Royals 6

In the fourth inning, two outs, runner on first, Sam Gaviglio tried to make a pick off throw to first, slipped and threw it into the ground. There was a long long long argument and then replay review to decide that this was a balk.

But more importantly, when the ball left his hand that was the last moment of the game that was interesting.

Sam would go on to allow 3 runs that inning (perhaps the long break caused his arm to get cold or perhaps it is Sam Gaviglio and, if you wait long enough, he’s going to give up 3 runs in some inning).

Sam made it through 4.1 innings, allowed 8 hits, 5 earned, 1 walk with 2 strikeouts. balk or not, he didn’t have a good game.

On offense, we had 7 hits and 3 walks but only scored two runs. We should have scored more. That last line appears in a lot of recaps.

Kevin Pillar had 2 hits. Everyone else had a hit excepting Randal Grichuk (he’s been in a bit of a slump, hitting .118/.118/.118 over his last 5 games), Teoscar Hernandez (0 for 3, with a walk and 2 strikeouts, also in a bit of a slump) and Diaz.

Danny Jansen was 1 for 3, lowering his batting average to .400. Richard Urena had a hit too.

Teoscar had 2 or 3 misplays in the field. Being fair, he also made a nice throw from left, throwing Jorge Bonifacio out at second trying to stretch a single into a double.

Jansen made a very nice play on a bunt.

Early in the game the Jays tried the double steal, to steal a run with runners on first and third, but everyone’s favorite catcher Sal Perez, looked Pillar back at third before throwing Diaz out at second. Diaz should have slid into the bag but wasn’t expecting a play there. That play looks really good when it works. It looks stupid when it doesn’t.

Our bullpen did ok.

• Mayza got the last two outs of the 5th.
• Jake Petricka gave up 1 run off 3 hits in his 2 innings.
• Jaime Garcia pitched a scoreless 8th.

Jays of the Day? Kendrys had the number, .116 WPA, for a 1 for 2 with 2 walks.

Suckager: Gaviglio (-.281) and Diaz (-.130 plus the caught stealing). And I’m giving one to Teoscar for the 0 for and the 3 misplays in the field.

We had a rather amazing 514 comments in the GameThread. Amazing because there was a 2 hour rain delay and the game was boring. I led the way.

I apologize for any and all errors in the above, but it’s late and I’m tired.