Jays crush Rangers, Bichette gets four more hits

Rangers 4 Blue Jays 19

We really have to enjoy thumping the Rangers. There are few teams I’d rather beat this bad. The Yankees and Red Sox and maybe the Rays (though I doubt that has happened), but the Rangers are in the top 5 of teams I’m glad to beat.

This one was over early. We scored:

• 2 in the second inning
• 3 in the third.
• 8 in the fourth.
• 2 in the fifth.
• 2 in the sixth.
• 2 in the eighth.

We had 21 hits, 4 of them home runs and 9 of them doubles. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit (though Derek Fisher’s hit came off catcher and former Jay Jeff Mathis, who game up two hits, including a Danny Jansen home run).

Let’s just run through what the hitters did:

• Bo Bichette was 4 for 6, with 3 runs and an RBI. He hit 2 doubles and was thrown out at second trying to stretch a single into a double (it wasn’t close). He is now hitting .394, with 26 hits with 11 doubles and 4 home runs. He also stole a base, third, when the Rangers were in a big shift and no one was covering third base. Bo made a couple of excellent plays at short.
• Justin Smoak was 3 for 5 with 4 RBI. He had a home run and 2 doubles.
• Randal Grichuk was 3 for 5 with 4 RBI. He had a double and a home run.
• Danny Jansen was 3 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 RBI. He homed off Mathis. I’m not sure that home runs against batters pitching should really count.
• Brandon Drury was 2 for 5 with 5 RBI. He had a grand slam in our 8 run fourth.
• Cavan Biggio was 2 for 6 with 2 RBI. Both his hits were doubles.
• Vladimir Guerrero was 2 for 4 with 3 runs. He had a double and had a walk. He also made a couple of very nice plays at third base.
• Fisher was 1 for 3, with 2 walks.
• Teoscar Hernandez was 1 for 4 with a walk. He also was thrown out trying to go second to third on a ground ball to the second baseman. You are supposed to move up on ground balls hit behind you. It was a close play, the Jays challenged the out call. After a long long review they went with out. It was very close.

It was just too easy today.

And we got good work from out pitchers.

New Blue Jay Neil Ramirez played the opener role and got through his inning in 7 pitches. It is fair to wonder why we didn’t have him throw another inning. 7 pitches really shouldn’t have maxed him out.

Brock Stewart had the bulk role. He gave up 5 hits, with no walks and 3 strikeouts in his 5.1 innings. He did give up 3 home runs. One in the second inning and then 2 more in the seventh, when it looked like he was tiring. The only unfortunate thing was that one of the homers was hit by Roughed Odor. Brock looked good out there, throwing strikes. I’m ok with giving up a solo homer when we are up by a dozen or so.

Buddy Boshers pitched 1.1 innings, getting 2 strikeouts. He walked one and hit a batter and came out with 2 out on 2 out in the 8th. Justin Shafer came in to get the last out of the inning and he pitched the ninth, giving up a run.

You have to congratulate the fans at Rogers Centre for booing Odor every time up at bat and cheering loudly when he struck out in the eight. That is good work by the home fans.

We are now 7-5 in August. The games are fun to watch. Early in the season, the games were terrible to watch, but it has been fun, win or loss, lately.

Jays of the Day: Smoak (.148 WPA), Grichuk (.118) and Drury (.104). And let’s give one to Bichette for his 4 hit game.

No Suckage Jays. Teoscar had the low mark at -.044, which doesn’t include being thrown out at third.

We had more comments than the Jays had hits, but it was close. We had 636 comments. Alan F. led us to victory.