Bats MIA as Jays blanked by Red Sox 5-0

Blue Jays 0 at Boston 5

For nine half-innings, Chris Sale and Thomas Pannone matched each other zero for zero. Unfortunately for the Jays, that streak was not to reach double digits as Pannone’s start unravelled at the hands of the long ball by a familiar face.

Leading off the bottom of the 5th of a scoreless game, Pannone got Andrew Benintendi to pop out to third as the ninth straight out he had recorded since Benintendi walked in the second as Pannone settled in the first time through the order. It turned out to be the last out he recorded.

Sam Travis followed with a smash past Drury down the left field line for a double, and scored when Sandy Leon followed with with a single. Mookie Betts walked to put two on with Rafael Devers due up. He continued to kill the Jays in 2019, effectively putting the game away with a long three run bomb to right field to make it 4-0.

That technically wasn’t insurmountable, except for the little issue that the Jays did almost nothing offensively, mounting just two singles and three free passes against 15 strikeouts. Four of those time reaching base actually came to start innings (the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th), just just once did a Blue Jays player advance as far as second base, when Drury singled Vladimir Guerrero Jr to second with two out after his leadoff walk.

From that point onward, Red Sox pitching faced the minimum through the end of the game, the only blemish along the 13 batters faced a hit-by-pitch of Danny Jansen by old friend Marcus Walden leading off the 7th, erased on an inning ending double play by Teoscar Hernandez. Chris Sale racked up 11 strikeouts in six shutout innings, and kudos to him but it felt a lot more attributable to Blue Jays futility than him being untouchable as has been the case in years past when he’s dominated.

Pannone ended up with 4.1 innings, 4 earned on 5 hits with two strikeouts and three walks. Overall he was servicable, he was very good the second time through the order. Of course, it really didn’t matter. Justin Shafer followed him out of the pen, and was probably the best pitcher on the afternoon, with three strikeouts against just a walk and a single over 1.2 innings. Derek Law failed to bring order, allowing a leadoff home run in the 7th to Mookie Betts to provide the final margin, and then two more walks in the 8th to necessitate using Joe Biagini to finish the game. With a couple 40-man spots needed in the next week, he did nothing to help his cause.

Jays of the Day: Only two of the 13 Blue Jays to appear in today’s game had a positive number: Shafer (+0.021 WPA) and Justin Smoak (+0.009).

Blew Jays: Pannone (-0.124) hit the mark, while Freddy Galvis (-0.116) and Teoscar (-0.104) had the misfortune of being singled out in the other side. But really, pretty much every hitter could be here. Dishonourable mention to Randal Grichuk (-0.066; the same 0/4 with a sombrero as Galvis)

Tomorrow, the Jays travel to Detroit for the weekend, Marcus Stroman taking the ball against TBD at 7:10 PM eastern. Hopefully this time the bats remember to show up before the 6th inning unlike at the beginning of the season, those I suppose even that is better than not at all like this afternoon.