Homers from Smoak and Hernandez power Jays to win

Cleveland 2 Blue Jays 6

When we scored 2 runs in the first inning, while making Cleveland starter Mike Clevinger throw a lot of pitches, I thought we were going to see a lot of runs today. But instead we saw a pretty close, low scoring game, until Teoscar homered in the 8th.

Justin Smoak was our early game offensive star, he hit a 2-run homer in the first and then drove in our 3rd run with a single in the 3rd inning.

Teoscar Hernandez added to our lead, in the 8th, hitting a 3-run homer.

The 8th had been interesting before Teoscar’s homer. Billy McKinney hustled out a double to lead things off. I thought he was going to be an easy out, but he was just safe. Then Lourdes Gurriel grounded to second. McKinney went to third, but second baseman Erik Gonzalez threw to third and got the out there. But with Gurriel on first, Smoak grounded to first and Yandy Diaz dove for it, and threw to second from his knees, wide. Instead of getting an easy out at first, he went for the tough out at second and it cost him. It cost more when Teoscar Hernandez followed with a homer run.

We only had 6 hits (and 11 strikeouts) on the day, but we made the hits count. Smoak and Teoscar had 2 hits each. McKinney and Reese McGuire had our other 2 hits.

Teoscar went 2 for 2 after coming in for the injured Randal Grichuk. Grichuk, chasing after a foul ball, was clocked on the nose by the security guard’s stool. The guard was avoiding Smoak (who was also chasing the popup) and didn’t see Randal coming.

No word on the extent of the injury. I’m hoping he’ll be ok.

Thomas Pannone had a very nice start. 6.1 innings. Just 4 hits, 2 earned, 3 walks and 2 strikeouts. He left the game after giving up a solo homer to Brandon Barnes. The only time he was in real trouble was right after Randal’s injury, when he gave up a couple of walks, but he managed to get out of the inning.

Our bullpen did the job.

• Ryan Tepera finished off the 7 inning.
• Jose Fernandez started the 8th, but gave up a lead off single. Jake Petricka came in and stranded the runner, getting 3 strikeouts. That gives him 6 strikeouts over the past two games, in 2 innings of work.
• David Paulino started the 9th. He got two outs but gave up a walk and a hit and in came....
• Ken Giles, who had a long at bat against Francisco Lindor, but got a ground out for his 8th save as a Blue Jay.

Of note:

• Rowdy Tellez had the first hitless game of his career.
• Reese McGuire stole his first base, on a blown hit and run.
• Billy McKinney reached base again, he’s reached in each of his 17 starts for the Blue Jays.

Jays of the Day: Petricka (.211 WPA), Pannone (.170), Smoak (.258) and Hernandez (.128).

Suckage: No one had the number, Jose Fernandez came the closest at -.086.

We had 285 comments in the GameThread. TimmyMax led us to victory. Great job.