Jays score 7 in the 9th inning and beat the Rays

Rays 8 Blue Jays 9

So that was an amazing 9th inning. We scored 7 runs. I still don’t really believe it.

Justin Smoak hit the game winning home run. Just before that Lourdes Gurriel hit a 2-run homer to tie it. And, before that, Danny Jansen had a 3-run homer to make it a game.

Just to go through it in order, in the 9th:

Dwight Smith Jr. had a leadoff double, going to third when Mallex Smith dribbled the ball. Rowdy Tellez doubled to bring him home. I thought ‘great, Tellez gets 3 RBI today’.

Then Jonathan Davis was hit by pitch. An out later, Danny Jansen hit a 3-run homer and suddenly we were down by just 2. I still didn’t believe, but it made it made it worth watching.

Sergio Romo came into the game, looking for a save in a game that had been a blow out just a few minutes before. He wouldn’t get it. Romo struck out Richard Urena. Then Kendrys popped a ball into mid-right center, into no man’s land. I still didn’t believe. That was the luckiest hit of the season. It was only fair, Kendrys has been robbed several times this year.

Then Lourdes hit the game tying homer. I was starting to believe.

Justin Smoak followed with the game winner. I’m in a hotel room and I’m sure people 3 floors above and below me heard me scream.

3 home runs in the 9th inning, 2 against Rays closer Sergo Romo. It was the most amazing inning of baseball this year.

Before the 9th, we really didn’t do much.

We got 2 runs in the second inning. Before the Jays’ half of the inning, the umpires left the field to change clothing, apparently their equipment get to the park late. The long delay didn’t help Rays ‘opener’ Ryne Stanek. He gave up a Randal Grichuk double followed by a Rowdy Tellez home run. Kevin Pillar singled and Stanek was pulled for Yonny Chirinos and the fun ended. If I was Rays manager Kevin Cash, I would have complained.

We didn’t have the same luck against Yonny Chirinos. He allowed just 1 hit and 1 walks, with 5 strikeouts, over 4.2 innings. I thought the Rays took him out of the game too early.

In all, we had 11 hits, 6 of them in the 9th inning.

In the ‘I don’t think I’ve seen this before’ category, Sam Gaviglio had four 1-3 ground outs in the first inning. I can hear my mom saying ‘let the other boys play’.

Sam’s first 3 innings went well. The fourth, not so much. Single, triple, double and our 2-run lead was wiped clean. Thankfully it ended there.

We wasted our review in the 4th inning, Ji-Man Choi stole second and was in easy, but we asked for a review anyway. I don’t know what they saw that made them think it should be reviewed.

Sam went 5 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and had 2 strikeouts. That counts as a good start for Sam.

The fun of September baseball is......well, it isn’t that you get 3 relivers in an inning. But that’s what we got.

• The 6th inning started with Jose Fernandez on the mound. He gave up a walk, single then a pop out.
• In comes Jake Petricka. He gives up a single (scoring a run) and a walk. Bases loaded for
• Tim Mayza. All he does is get 2 strikeouts to end the inning. We are down 3-2 but it could have been much worse. Of course, that meant we used both our bullpen lefties in the inning.
• Mark Leiter Jr. started the 7th. He gave up a leadoff walk to Mallex Smith. Smith stole second, even though we pitched out. That was followed by an infield single, Gurriel did a great job of getting to the ball, but he had no play. It did stop Smith from scoring, for a moment. Another infield hit (again to Lourdes) scored Smith. And a single (into the outfield this time) scored another run. Out goes Leiter, with 2 runs in and 2 runners on and only 1 out. We could release him now and avoid the rush.
• In comes Joe Biagini. He got a strikeout, but then walked Kevin Kiermaier to load the bases. A ‘single’ by C.J. Cron (just in front of a diving Billy McKinney) scored all three base runners and it became a route. 8-2. After another single, Joe finally got out of the inning. Joe pitched a 1-2-3 8th. I didn’t think it would matter.
• David Paulino pitched a quick 9th, with a strikeout.

Jays of the Day: Gurriel (.440 WPA), Smoak (.417), Mayza (.158) and Tellez (.095).

Suckage: Leiter (-.231) and Petricka (-.202).

We had 485 comments in the GameThread. I led us to the best victory of the season. After a long day, I really wanted a win.