Jays waste Anthony Kay’s very good MLB debut

Blue Jays 3 Rays 5

Anthony Kay had a very good start for us. 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned, 3 walks and 8 strikeouts. And really the 2 earned could have easily been unearned.

In the fourth, Avisail Garcia led off with a hard grounder right at Vladimir Guerrero at third. It was hit hard but I thought Vlad should have made the play. It was called a hit, it could have been an error. Next batter, Tommy Pham pops one just over Rowdy Tellez (who had a terrific game defensively) and Cavan Biggio. If Tellez hadn’t been holding the runner on, or if he was a little faster, I think he could have made the play. Then Biggio booted it before picking it up. It ended up with runners on first and third. Likely would have been first and third even if Cavan came up with it cleanly.

Then Austin Meadows lined a single to center to score the runner from third. A hit batter and a walk scored the second run.

Kay got in a trouble again in the sixth, giving up two out back-to-back walks, and that was the game for him.

Jason Adam came in to get the last out of the inning. A strikeout of pinch hitter Nate Lowe.

In the seventh Adam gave up a broken bat single over the infield and a hard hit double to left to score the tying run.

Derek Law came in with the go ahead run on second and no outs and got a strikeout, ground out and soft line out to second (with an intentional walk to Meadows mixed in there). A pretty great job by Law.

Jordan Romano started the eighth. He gave up a walk and Tim Mayza took over and gave up a double. He got a strikeout and he was out and Ryan Tepera came in. Tepera really hasn’t looked great since coming off the IL. A sac fly and a single and we were down by 2 going into the ninth.

Offensively, we did nothing much until the sixth. In the inning Tellez had a 1 out single, Vlad followed with a double down the left field line. Justin Smoak walked to load the bases. Reese McGuire (single), Jonathan Davis (single) and Billy McKinney (sac fly) score the three.

We had a chance to take the lead in the top of the eight. Justin Smoak doubled and Anthony Alford came in to pinch run, but McGuire, Davis and McKinney managed to leave him at second.

In the bottom of the ninth we went down without a fight.

We only had 6 hits. Davis had 2, a single and a double.

Biggio had 2 walks (and 3 strikeouts). Tellez was hit by pitch twice and singled. Vlad was 1 for 4 with a double. McGuire and Smoak each had a hit and a walk.

The rest? Bo Bichette went 0 for 5 with a k. McKinney was 0 or 3, with 2 ks and a sac fly. Derek Fisher was 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts, Teoscar Hernandez pinch hit for Fisher in the ninth and continued the perfect strikeout day.

We had 15 strikeouts on the day. Not wanting to sound too much like Buck and Pat, but there were a few times today that making any sort of contact would have been better than a strikeout. Every Jays starter had at least 1 strikeout, except for Davis (and I was complaining about him being in the lineup over Alford).

Rowdy had a terrific game with the glove. In the second inning he made a nice running catch on a foul popup and a nice play on a ground ball. He had an over-the-shoulder catch chasing a pop fly a long way into right field. He made a nice diving stop and good throw to the pitcher covering first. Add in the 2 hit by pitch and the single he had a good day.

Jays of the Day: Smoak (.109 WPA), Davis (.092) and Law (.197, he was the one reliever to do well) and I’m giving one to Kay.

Suckage: Adam (-.267), Tepera (-.153), Mayza (-.108), Fisher (-.144), McKinney (-.113) and Bo (-.098).

I’m going to be missing tomorrow, we are having a birthday party for my dad. He’s 89, so we figured we ought to have a party for him this year, because you don’t know how many more there will be.

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