Blue Jays Fall to Braves in Opener

Braves 6 Blue Jays 3

The Braves took down the Blue Jays in the first game of this short 2 game set in Atlanta.

Jacob Waguespack struggled with his command on the day, walking 5, and while he did just give up a single hit over his 4 innings, it was painful one. With a walk on board, Josh Donaldson turned on a first inning mistake fastball from Waguespack, driving it over the wall for a pair of first inning runs to put the Jays down 2-0.

The 3rd inning was rough one for Waguespack as well, as he walked the bases loaded around a groundout and strikeout, and seemed to have danced around danger with a ground ball hit right at Brandon Drury, but Drury booted it leading to two more runs.

Jason Adam worked the 5th and 6th innings, allowing just a hit but otherwise pitched a pair of nice innings.

Ryan Tepera pitched the 7th inning, and promptly walked the first batter he faced since May 20. Rafael Ortega then stole second as Tepera got his first strikeout. After a botched pickoff moved Ortega to 3B, Tepera struck out the last 2 batters to strand the runner at third.

The Braves would tack on another pair of runs in the bottom of the 8th, as Buddy Boshers was brought in to keep the game close. After Bo Bichette booted the same ball about 3 times to allow Donaldson to reach, Johan Camargo, pinch hitting for the pitcher, deposited it into the left field bullpen.

In total, the Jays pitchers allowed 6 runs, just 3 earned though, on 4 hits and 6 walks. There was a lot of ugly on the run prevention side, with 2 home runs, 6 walks and 3 errors, but there was some good too, including 10 strikeouts, and Tepera looked pretty good coming back from injury.

On the offensive side of things, the Jays batters had a bit of success against Mike Soroka. Bo Bichette jumped on him early, getting a single in the first at bat to put the thought of another no-hitter out of mind right away. He was stranded at second though.

Brandon Drury picked up a single in 2nd inning, but was also stranded. Then after a runnerless 3rd inning, Randal Grichuk led off the 4th with his team leading 24th home run of the year.

Rowdy Tellez hit a pinch hit home run in the 5th, connecting on his 16th of the season. The Jays added another in the inning as Bo Bichette walked, went to 3B on a Cavan Biggio double, then scored on a Grichuk sac fly. That 5th inning would be the end of the line for Mike Soroka, but it was enough for him to pick up the win.

That was unfortunately the end of the offense for the Jays, as the next 13 Jays batters after the sac fly all were put down in order.

Jays of the Day - None. Jason Adam had the high water mark with his 2 shutout innings, but he capped out at 0.94 WPA, and I’m not giving out these JoD awards like they’re candy.

Suckage Jays - Jacob Waguespack (-.210), Justin Smoak (-.126) and Buddy Boshers (-.098). I hope this is the end of the line for Boshers, as the seemingly intelligent move would be to bring in T.J. Zeuch to pitch tomorrow, and he needs a roster spot.

So tune in tomorrow evening for a 7:20 pm start time, as Mike Foltynewicz gets the start for the Braves and the Jays will likely go with “an opener and a guy”.