Price was quite right, Jays shutout in Beantown

Blue Jays 0 Red Sox 1

14. That’s how many losses the Jays now have against Boston this year, as the latter squeezed out its 100th win of the season. Against just 4 wins. Ah well, at least we’re not the OriLOLs, trying to stay within 60 games of the division lead.

Offensively, the less said the better as the Jays did precious little against David Price for 7 innings and a couple relievers. In all, four measly hits and a couple free passes. Price set down the order the first four times the Jays came to bat, the perfect game broke up by a 5th inning single by Yangervis Solarte. A Jonathan Davis single in the 6th and another by Solarte in the 7th were the only other blemishes against Price as the Jays didn’t come close to threatening him.

Their one threat came in the 8th as Steven Wright entered. Rowdy Tellez smashed a double to the gap leading off, followed by a walk to Danny Jansen. Kevin Pillar pinch hit for...let’s go with reasons, struck out, and the next two were retired stranding the tying run on 3rd.

The big redeeming positive was that Aaron Sanchez was matching Price zero-for-zero for most of the night. He wasn’t quite as good, working around a runner on the basepaths in most innings in going 7 innings allowing 3 hits and 3 walks against 6 strikeouts. He struck out the side in the 3rd inning, and Tesocar Hernandez sort of misplayed a single in the 4th but made a nice throw to gun down Xander Bogaerts at 2nd to end the inning.

The only run of the game came in the 5th. Mitch Moreland walked leading off, and with one out Brock Holt (of course, this guy was in the middle of it) went against the shift and hit a grounder through the left side. Sanchez got a short fly out to hold the runner at 3rd, and had Jackie Bradley Jr. in a 1-2 hole. But he couldn’t finish him off, bounced a couple of breaking ball including a 2-2 curve that Danny Jansen couldn’t handle, resulting in a wild pitch to score Moreland. Game, set and match as it turned out.

Tyler Clippard made a big mess in the 8th but managed to wiggle out of it and who really cares anyway.

Jays of the Day: Sanchez (+0.245 WPA)

Suckage: Devon Travis (-0.214, 0-for-4); Billy McKinney (-0.190, ditto); Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (-0.148, ditto); Kendrys Morales (-0.146); Pillar (-0.121); Teoscar (-0.098, only 0-for-3). Been a long time since I recall putting together a line this long.

Tomorrow, Sam Gaviglio will try to stave off the sweep against Eduardo Rodriguez in the season finale against the Red Sox at 7:10 EDT.