Cavan Biggio Hits for the Cycle, Jays Win

Blue Jays 8 Orioles 5

The takeaway from that? Cavan Biggio looks like he could be a pretty good player. When he first came up I thought he seemed to be waiting for the walk or the strikeout. Occasionally he’d decide to swing and hit the ball hard, but most of the time, he seemed to be playing patience instead of baseball.

Tonight (and for the last few games) Cavan has been more aggressive at the plate and he became the 3rd in Blue Jays history to hit for the cycle (joining Jeff Frye and Kelly Gruber). He had a:

• Strikeout in the first.
• Two-run homer in the third.
• Single in the sixth.
• Double in the eighth.
• And two-run triple in the ninth. Part of the four-run ninth that got us the win.

Throw in two steals (he now has 13 without being caught), 3 runs and 4 RBI. It was a pretty good night.

Beyond that on offense, we had 12 hits. Danny Jansen and Vlad had 2 each. Randal Grichuk and Justin Smoak (in the ninth to put us ahead, he crushed it) each homered. Bo Bichette didn’t get a hit, but he took two walks.

Anthony Alford got to play, he pinch ran.

We got a lesson in not using up your challenge in the first inning tonight.

In the first inning with two runs already in, Rio Ruiz hit one down the right field line. Randal Grichuk had a bit of trouble with the ball in the corner and, by the time he threw it back in Ruiz was on his way to third. The relay into third made it close, but after a sweep tag attempt, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. seemed to shake his head at the dugout, suggesting he didn’t think he made the tag.

Charlie challenged anyway and, though one of the views made it look like he might have touched the jersey, there wasn’t enough to overturn the call.

Later in the game, Chance Sisco on third base, Dwight Smith pops one to medium center. Teoscar Hernandez makes the catch, coming towards the plate, and makes a nice throw home, but Chance is called safe. Replay showed he was tagged but we didn’t have a challenge.

If we got that call, Trent Thornton would have had 5 scoreless innings tonight, And we would have still be leading 3-2.

Thornton looked great, 5 innings 3 hits, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts, with the 1 earned run.

Another play that bugged me. With Lourdes Gurriel at first base, and two outs, Vlad popped one up to left. Gurriel should have been running on contact, but he watched the ball, then was thrown out going for third base. Lourdes isn’t running well, but if he run on contact he would have been safe easy.

The way he is running I don’t think he should be playing, but, a play like that should get a guy a quick trip to the bench.

Ryan Tepera played opener and opened by giving up a pair of runs on a Trey Mancini homer. He’s no Wilner Font.

Justin Shafer started the seventh inning, gave up a couple of hits and a walk (he was less than pleased with the ball four call) that added up to a go ahead run for the O’s, while getting just 2 outs. He was helped out by the O’s running into an out on the basepath.

Buddy Boshers relieved and walked the only batter he faced.

In came Brock Stewart, he gave up a line drive that, thankfully was right at Vlad at third.

Derek Law pitched a nice quick eight inning, he didn’t even give up a walk for a change. He got the win.

Ken Giles gave up a home run in the ninth, but we were up by 4 so it didn’t matter.

Announced attendance was 9,280....but about 9000 of those were disguised as empty seats.

Jays of the Day: Biggio (.583 WPA), Smoak (.261), Thornton (.163) and Law (.109).

Suckage: Shafer (-.176) and Tepera (-.149).

We had 454 comments in the GameThread. Belisarius led us to victory. Great job.