Grichuk hits 2 homers and Tellez gets his first, in a Blue Jays loss

Cleveland 9 Blue Jays 8

If you like offense, that was the game for you. Lots of offense, not much for pitching and some crappy defense, but lots of offense.

Randal Grichuk hit 2 home runs and Rowdy Tellez hit his first major league homer. At that point he had 7 MLB hits all extra base hits. He did get single in the 8th inning.

Unfortunately, we gave up a few runs. More than a few.

Sean Reid-Foley looked great through 4 innings, but it all fell apart in the 5th.

In the 5th he gave up a leadoff homer then a walk and, after the first out of the inning, another homer. An out later he walked Edwin Encarnacion and Yonder Alonso, and he was out of the game. In all 4.2 innings, 5 hits, 5 walks 3 strikeouts and 2 home runs.

Justin Shafer came in and things didn’t get better. He gave up 2 walks, the second one driving in a run and then a double to score 3 more. After that he got out of the inning, but 7 runs would score. We entered the inning up 3-1 and exited it down 8-3.

Mark Leiter Jr. pitched the 6th, he gave up a couple of hits and a run scoring on a wild pitch.

Tim Mayza gave up 2 hits, but had a scoreless 7th.

Tyler Clippard gave up 2 hits, but didn’t allow a run in the 8th, while getting 3 strikeouts.

Taylor Guerrieri pitched a clean 9th.

After following behind 8-3, we did make an effort at a come back, scoring 2 in the 5th and 6th inning and 1 more in the 7th, to make it a 1-run game.

We had a shot at tying it in the 8th. With Tellez on base, Justin Smoak pinch hit but was called out on strikes on a pitch at least 6 inches off the plate. Angel Hernandez should try Kendrys’ glasses.

And we had another shot in the 9th. Aledmys Diaz had a 1-out double. Dwight Smith pinch hitting, had a long at bat, but hit a soft fly out and Lourdez lined one out to right.

We had 18 hits. Diaz had 4 hits (3 doubles). Grichuk had 3 (with the 2 homers). McKinney, Gurriel, Tellez and Pillar had 2 each. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit.

Jays of the Day: Diaz (.374 WPA), Tellez (.112) and I’m giving Grichuk one even though his number was short of the mark (.049), but he had 2 home runs and made a very nice play in the field, taking a ball that bounced off the wall and making a great throw to second to throw out Yonder Alonso by 35 feet. Course he also over threw the cutoff man later in the game.

Suckage: Shafer (-.294), Reid-Foley (.252), Pillar (-.125, not really fair, he was 2 for 5, and he hit the ball hard, in 2 other at bats) and Smith (-.142, all in the one pinch hit at bat in the 9th).

We had 375 comments in a very nice GameThread. I led us to defeat. Sorry.