Solarte’s error gives the Jays another loss

Blue Jays 3 Red Sox 4

I don’t think I’ve ever been so pissed off at a dropped popup before. Jays tie the game in the top of the 8th, then in the bottom of the inning Xander Bogaerts hits a 1-out double, steals third, but I think all might be ok when Blake Swihart pops the ball up to just back of second. But Yangeris Solarte had the ball go off the side of his glove and the go ahead run scores.

Just hard to believe.

We didn’t do much offensively.

Justin Smoak drove in Lourdes Gurriel in the 3rd inning.

Then in the 8th Gurriel hit a 1-out homer (crushed it over the wall in left). An out later, Joe Kelly comes in with 2 outs and no one on.

Kelly was all kinds of bad. He gave up a walk, a single and then hit Randal Grichuk and Kevin Pillar to bring in the tying run.

We only had 7 hits. Gurriel and Kendrys Morales were the only Jays with 2 hits.

Jays starter Sam Gaviglio wasn’t good. He gave up 6 hits (but only 2 runs) in 3.1 innings. He was lucky not to give up more runs.

The bullpen was up and down:

• Jose Fernandez went 1.1 without giving up a base runner.
• Mark Leiter pitch an inning, giving up 2 hits, including a solo homer, and got 3 strikeouts.
• Tim Mayza pitched 1.1 again without giving up a base runner.
• Danny Barnes gave up the double, but the run scoring wasn’t his fault. He got 2 strikeouts.

Jays of the Day: Pillar gets the number (.116 WPA), but that was for getting hit by a pitch after chasing two pitches at head height, so I’m not giving him one. Fernandez gets one for his .108. And I’m giving one to Gurriel for his homer and good play at second.

Suckage: Barnes had the number (-.210), but I’m not giving him it. Solarte gets one for the -.098 and the awful error. Just a poor play on his part, he didn’t go back quickly on the popup, but he still should have caught it. He also went 0 for 4. He gets a gold plated suckage award and puts an exclamation mark on the Jays decision not to pick up his option.

And Diaz (-.186, 0 for 4), McKinney (-.145, for strikeout on a pinch hit appearance) and Jansen (-.098, 0 for 2).

I’m glad to see that series behind us.

We had 359 comments in the GameThread. weshbromjayfan led the way.