Game #123 Preview: Reid-Foley vs Severino

After a rain-shortened loss last night, the Jays get right back at it early in New York to take on the Yankees in game 2 of this 3 game set. If the rain doesn’t delay the game, we’re set for a 1:05 ET start.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Sean Reid-Foley was eased into the Majors his last time out, taking on the Kansas City Royals in their spacious park. Now he’s thrown into the New York Bandbox to take on one of the best offenses in the league. Hopefully he’s over any nerves he had last time, and is able to hit his spots with some consistency.

The start on Monday in KC didn’t go as well as we were all hoping, although Reid-Foley has struggled on promotion before. He allowed 3 runs on 6 hits in 5 innings, striking out 3 but also walking 3. If he was playing a different team than the Royals, 9 baserunners in 5 innings while also allowing a home run probably leads to more than 3 runs. But he did a great job dancing out of trouble, especially in the 4th inning when he loaded the bases and then walked in a run before getting an out. However, he gutted it out, got a pop-up and a double play, and then pitched a scoreless 5th inning and ended the night with a strikeout. A finish I’m sure will stick with him as we was able to overcome the struggles and bad situation he made for himself.

Yankees’ Starter

The Blue Jays get to face Luis Severino for the 4th time this season. The Yankees’ righty Ace, who is 15-6 with a 3.27 ERA on the season, has been even better against the Blue Jays. Through 17.2 innings, he is 3-0 with a 2.04 ERA, and Jays batters are hitting .150/.250/.317. Pillar, Grichuk and Hernandez all have home runs off him, which accounts for all 4 runs the Jays have scored off Severino this year.

In the preview for the July 7 game, I called Severino the “2018 AL Cy Young winner” and he was really looking like it as he was building on the breakout season that got him a 3rd place finish last year. Since I typed those ominous words, however, Severino has really struggled. In his last 7 starts, Severino has allowed 31 runs (30 earned) over 36 innings, surrendering 54 hits and 11 home runs. In his previous 118.1 innings this season prior to that, he had allowed 27 runs (26 earned) on 83 hits and 8 home runs. A real turning point in his season, although not the way Yankee fans wanted to see.

Lineups

In surprising news - in an attempt to make Toronto fans like him more, Jaime Garcia has legally changed his name to Aaron Loup. Bold move, but I’ve seen worse decisions.

Billy McKinney makes the start in LF in Yankee stadium, and is batting first. I hope he leads off with a first row home run down the right field line.

Curtis Granderson, the highest paid player in the Jays’ lineup today, moves down to the 3 spot.

On the Yankee side, it’s the exact same lineup as yesterday. Super boring.

EDIT: I see they’re trying the two-center-fielders-no-left-fielder strategy. I retract my “boring” statement.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Manny Machado hit a pair of home runs yesterday, the only player in baseball with a multi-homer game. But he’s Manny Machado, and also got out 3 times, so I’m not giving him the Monster Bat award. Instead, I’ll give it to Tim Anderson of the White Sox, who went 3-3 with a single, double, triple and a walk, while also stealing 2 bases as the White Sox beat the Royals 9-3.

We have a super close race for the WPA King. Cole Hamels had a .498 mark as a pitcher, while Nick Martini had a .499 mark as a hitter. So Martini gets the win, even without having to remove the -.003 that Hamels put up because WPA unfairly penalizes him for pitching in a league with bad rules. Anyway, Martini hit a 1-out game tying double in the bottom of the 9th (although he was stranded) that paved the way for a Matt Olson walkoff home run in the Athletics’ huge 4-3 win over the Astros. Congrats to Martini on the WPA King title.

Cole Hamels doesn’t get Pitcher of the Day either with his 7 shutout innings. That’s because he walked 1 more, hit 1 more and gave up 2 more hits than Carlos Carrasco did in his 7 shutout innings. Carraso helped his Cleveland club beat the lowly Orioles 2-1.

Find the Link

Find the link between Severino and Harvey Scott Sutherland.