Jays sweep Orioles

Blue Jays 8 Orioles 4

Wilmer Font did a nice job as the opener again. 2 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts, with no runs scored. I’m an old guy, and, most of the time, I don’t see the point of the opener but he has been very good at the job.

And Anthony Kay did a nice job as well. He gave up a run on a single and a double in the third inning. And he had some bad luck in the fifth leading to another run. A bloop single just barely over the infield, followed by a well hit single put runners on first and third with no outs. Next batter hit a perfect, inning ending, double play ball, but Cavan Biggio bobbled it and they only got one out and the run scored. Stupid scoring rules say you can’t call that an error, but it was. So Kay got an earned run he didn’t deserve.

In all Kay went 4 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned (should be 1), 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. In his last game he had some bad luck on runs against too. He threw 70 pitches. I thought he could go further, but they are watching his innings.

Ryan Tepera gave up a lead off single and a Trey Mancini 2-out double to allow a run in his inning. Mancini had a terrific series against us.

Jordan Romano gave up a home run in the eighth. I figured he wanted to get Giles a save opportunity, but he needed to allow another run.

Justin Shafer finished out the game.

We didn’t wait for the bottom of the ninth to pull this one out.

We scored 2 in the fourth inning on back-to-back home runs by Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel. Vladimir Guerrero almost made it three in a row, he hit one the other way that right fielder Austin Hays made a great jump and catch, high over the wall. I guess it is fair, Derek Fisher stole a home run in yesterday’s game.

And we had a 6-run seventh inning:

• Randal Grichuk hit a 1-out double.
• Reese McGuire walked.
• Rowdy Tellez walked (4 walks in two games).
• Derek Fisher walked in a run.
• Biggio made up for his fielding mistake by singling home two. Mancini’s throw from right field was very weak, I thought there would be a play at the plate, but he barely got the ball back to the infield.
• Lourdes singled home one more.
• Vlad doubled in two more. We went from a 2-2 tie to up 8-2.

We had 10 hits on the day. 2 homers and 3 doubles.

Cavan, Lourdes and Vlad had 2 hits each in the middle of the order. It was nice to see Vlad hit the ball hard today. Every other starter had a hit each, except for Bo and Justin Smoak.

Bo was hit by pitch, it got him in the hand and then hit the brim of his helmet. He stayed in the game, but then came out after we took the big lead. I’m hoping he’s ok and they were just been cautious. No reason not to be careful with him.

Vlad had a terrific day with the glove. He cut in front of Bo and made a terrific strong throw to first, on a slow bouncer in the third inning, I thought there was no play. Later he grabbed a ball right along the foul line, right by third base and made a perfect throw across his body. And later, he had another soft grounder, which he wouldn’t have been able to get the out at first, but the runner from second, Mancini, came down the line towards him, Vlad chases him back and threw to Richard Urena to make the tag and get the out. Very smart play.

This was the middle play. Notice how nonchalant Rowdy was making the catch:

Jays of the Day: Biggio (.213 WPA, 2 for 5, 3 RBI, 2 strikeouts, both on pitches that weren’t strikes), Fisher (.126, 1 for 3, RBI walk), Lourdes (.097, 2 for 4, 2 RBI) and Font (.100).

Suckage: Smoak (-.089, for an 0 for 4).

We had 404 comments in the game thread. After last night’s marathon, this game seemed very quick. DangYouToHeck just beat me out for the win.