After the game the Jays made a roster move. Anthony Kay was called up and Brian Moran was, once again, sent down to New Hampshire. By my count that’s 11 trips between Toronto and New Hampshire for Moran (and he skips over Buffalo each time).
Kay is going into the rotation, taking Chase Anderson’s spot. It is about time. Anderson goes into the bullpen, where he’s been much better (8.88 ERA as a starter, 3.93 ERA as a reliever). This could have happened a month ago (well I guess it did, but Ryu went on the IL and Anderson was put back into into the rotation and didn’t come out when Ryu came off the IL). Anderson was untradable for me in the game.
This is Sunday’s game.
We swept the Yankees. It is pretty nice, we came into the series 2 games up on the second place Yankees and now we up 5 games on them (and the Rays).
I thought this was going to be a tough game, with Gerrit Cole starting for the Evil Ones. Cole came into the game with a 2.78 ERA. But we hit him like it was batting practice. Cole went 3.2 innings, we had 9 hits, 7 earned, 2 walks with 4 strikeouts. And he left with a 3.21 ERA. When he doesn’t win the Cy Young, this game will be the reason. We also scored 5 runs, in 4.1 innings, off 3 relievers.
On the day we had 15 hits, including 3 home runs. We scored:
3 in the first: All with 2 outs: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled, Bo Bichette doubled and Rowdy Tellez homered.
1 in third: Bo led off with a double, went to third on a ground out and scored on a Randal Grichuk fly ball.
3 in the fourth: We loaded the bases on a Travis Shaw walk and singles from Reese McGuire and Cavan Biggio. And then Bo unloaded them on with a double.
1 in the fifth: Grichuk homered.
4 in the eighth: Vlad led off with a homer. Bo walked. Zach Britton came into the game and loaded the bases with two more walks. A wild pitch and double by McGuire scored the three base runners.
Bo went 4 for 4 with a walk. Vlad was 3 for 5. Biggio, Grichuk and McGuire had 2 hits each. The only batter not to reach base was Lourdes Gurriel, who went 0 for 6 with 3 strikeouts.
Bichette had 3 RBI, which moves him up to third in the AL:
Nate Pearson threw 5 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk, with 8 strikeouts. He gave up a home run to Mike Tauchman. The win makes him 8-4 on the season. Pearson is third in the AL in ERA:
Jordan Romano threw 2.1 innings scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits with 3 strikeouts.
Eduardo Jimenez had a rough time. He gave up 5 hits and 4 earned, while getting just 1 out. His ERA jumped from 2.78 to 3.75.
Moran got the last out of the eighth inning and the first out of the ninth, both strikeouts, before flying out to New Hampshire (is there a direct flight?).
Anthony Bass came in for the last two outs of the game.
The sim quote of the game came from Charlie “You know, at the end of the day, it’s about who scores the most runs.”
39,534 sim fans came out to the old sim park, with the roof closed again, at 21 C. I’m starting to think that there is a problem with the roof.
Monday’s game is the start of 3 in Boston. Anthony Kay, just called up, gets the start. He was 6-4 with a 3.03 ERA in 16 starts in Buffalo. Collin McHugh (5-3, 2.90 ERA in 14 starts) goes for the Red Sox.
I’ve been posting player stats every five games:
We have 2 starters doing great, one doing ok and 2 who have been terrible.