Borucki decent but Jays fall

Blue Jays 3 Rays 4

For five innings, Ryan Borucki went toe to toe with the AL leader in ERA, and possible Cy Young winner. Ultimately, he faltered just enough late for the Rays to pull out a win against the Jays.

Though those five innings, it was 1-1, with the only damage against Borucki being a solo home run by C.J. Cron leading off the 2nd inning. Other than that, Borucki was pretty good, facing the minimum in the three odd numbered innings. The fourth was a little dicey, as he walked a pair after a leadoff single, but a pickoff/caught stealing helped prevent any damage.

Tommy Pham singled leading off the 6th, stealing second sandwiched a couple of flyouts, and it looked like Borucki would navigate another inning. But Brandon Lowe grounded a ball fairly hard up the middle just past a diving Jon Berti, re-tying the game.

After a leadoff strikeout to start the 7th, Borucki made a mistake to Austin Meadows and he hooked a long fly ball down the line that just stayed stayed fair for a home run and the Rays third run of the night. After another night, he once again could not get the last out of the inning without more damage, giving up a double that ended his night. Tim Mayza came into face Mallex Smith, and sawed him off, but the fly ball blooped just inside the left field line for what would ultimately be the deciding fourth run.

Offensively, the Jays jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first, with a leadoff infield single by Jon Berti followed by a couple walks by Aledmys Diaz and Randal Grichuk. Rowdy got the run home on a sac fly, but the Jays failed to take full advantage as Snell ultimately stranded the bases loaded full of walks.

That was pretty much all they managed to accomplish off him, as Snell went 5 innings allowing just the one (earned) run on 3 hits, with 4 walks against 10 strikeouts. There were a couple singles in the 3rd with one out by Diaz and Grichuk, but strikeouts of Rowdy and Teoscar nipped that in the bud.

Despite that dominance and only 82 pitches, Snell was removed after 5 innings, partially I’m sure to ensure a sub-2.00 ERA (though he could have allowed 2 runs in another inning and still done that). Teoscar Hernandez took advantage of that to belt an absolute monster home run off reliever Diego Castillo, estimated at 440 feet to left field, 111 MPH off the bat. And it looked every bit the part too, and absolute bomb.

That gave the Jays a momentary 2-1 lead, but unfortunately, it was about all the Jays did off the Rays bullpen. With the exception of a one one, pinch hit home run by Reese McGuire in the 9th, the Jays didn’t hit a ball another ball out of the infield. In four innings against Tampa relievers, the Jays hit the two home runs, struck out eight times, grounded out thrice, and popped out once.

Jays of the Day: Teoscar (+0.137 WPA). Too early to be calling him Mr. September?

Suckage: Borucki (-0.131), Jansen (-0.109), Urena (-0.105), Rowdy (-0.101), Jonathan Davis (-0.100). Lot of blame to go around.

Tomorrow, Sam Gaviglio will take to the hill in the 2018 season finale against opener Ryne Stanek at 3:00 EDT.