Jays victim of rancid Odor in 10-2 Rangers drubbing

Blue Jays 2 Rangers 10

The Blue Jays bid adieu to Globe Life Park in Arlington (let’s be honest, neither of these teams are going to the playoffs) by feebly rolling over in a Sunday afternoon series rubbermatch. Oh well, at least we’ll always have the playoff games there.

They managed to score two runs. Eric Sogard hit a solo home run in the third inning to continue his run of hitting out of his mind. They added another in the 7th after a leadoff double from Justin Smoak and a RBI single from Rowdy Tellez. The only other opportunity of any import came in the 4th when Randal Grichuk doubled leading off followed by Smoak walking. But Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit into a double play (as part of an 0-for-4 afternoon).

On the mound, Clay Buchholz had a very poor afternoon to put it mildly. Clay’s fifth start for the Blue Jays was about as one sided as Roger Federer’s fifth outing on clay against Rafael Nadal (note to tennis enthusiasts: this is mostly metaphorical, I don’t know how it actually went other than how these things did generally).

Buchholz only went 4 innings, allowing 7 (earned) runs on 8 hits. The Rangers jumped on him in the second, with Joey Gallo singled and bases doubling with each successive batter. Asdrubal Cabrera doubled, and then everyone’s favourite Ranger Rougned Odor hit a two run shot.

That would have been enough right there, but Cabrera got to Buchholz for a three run homer in the following inning, with the Rangers adding another single tally in the 4th for good measure.

That meant a bullpen that had to eat a bunch of inning last night had to eat a bunch more today. After going two innings last night, Derek law was back out for another today, givign up a run on a single to Odor. Elvis Luciano too came out again, pitching back-to-back for the first time in his career. It didn’t go well, as three of four batters reached and he allowed two runs.

Tim Mayza put out that fire to end the 6th, Ryan Tepera mercifully pitched a clean 7th and with the bullpen basically used up the Jays sent out Luke Maile for the 8th. He used a variety of junk ranging from a 59 MPH knuckleball to a 86 MPH fastball that struck out Shin Soo Choo to pitch a perfect inning. Notwithstanding a little bit of trouble finding the zone, it was the lone highlight of the day.

Jays of the Day: Ha! But we’ll give Luke Maile one, a shutout inning is a shutout inning for a position player, even with a lower degree of difficulty.

Blew Jays: Buchholz (-0.340 WPA), Vladito (-0.101)

Tomorrow, the Jays will open their season ending series with Minnesota (checks notes) before Mother’s Day? And having already finished with Oakland, before Victoria Day will also be done with the White Sox? What the heck MLB? Anyway, Marcus Stroman will take on Martin Perez at 7:05 EDT, not on Sportsnet as usual because hockey. Hopefully he has a good deep start with the bullpen in rough shape or Montoyo might have to throw a couple innings.