The sixth inning was a problem.
In the top of the inning, Vladimir Guerrero got his second hit of game, a single to lead off and Rowdy Tellez followed with a walk. We were thinking big inning. But Vlad wandered too far off second and was picked off. I had said, earlier in the game, that I hate pick off plays at second, they rarely work and more often are errors. But, when a baserunner is sleeping like Vlad was, it can work. It is something that should never happen. A Lourdes Gurriel double play ball ended the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Starling Marte led off with an easy grounder to short and, our new shortstop, Jonathan Villar, booted it. Next batter Garrett Cooper doubled him home.
That was one of the two runs off our new pitcher Bob Rae. He went 3.1 relief innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned (a Jon Berti home run, which Buck helpfully told us wouldn’t have gone out in the old Marlin’s park dimensions), only 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. He had some hard hit balls, but also had a fair bit of swing and miss.
Julian Merryweather played the role of opener and was great. 2 innings, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. For a player who doesn’t exist, he is pretty good.
Shun Yamaguichi came into the game in the sixth with 1 out and a runner on second and stranded that runner. He was very good except for one pitch in the eight that Marte hit for, what turned out to be the game winning home run.
We didn’t do much at all on offense. Where have all the homers gone? We are going to have to start hitting again at some point.
We had 6 hits and 3 walks. Vlad had 2 of the hits.
Our new SS, Villar went 0 for 4, with an RBI and an error. As well as the error, he had a crappy throw to first, on an easy ground out, that Rowdy made a very nice dig on. I hope his defense looks better in the future.
Jays of the Day: Merryweather (.103 WPA).
Suckage: Ray (-.206), McGuire (-.153), Vlad (-.140, despite being the only Jay with 2 hits), Grichuk (-107, but a very nice catch in center). And I’m giving one to Villar for the error.
I mentioned in the GameThread, I’m going to be missing for a few days (I’m not sure how long). My dad had a fall and broke his hip. He had surgery today. My sister and I are the only ones allowed to visit (and only one at a time), after we weren’t allowed for the first few days, so I’m going up to Edmonton to sit with him. He turn 90 this weekend, so not a great birthday present.
I will look in on occasion, and hopefully get to watch some of the games.
We had 520 comments in the GameThread (and only about 30 of them about Kenny Rogers, the singer, not the pitcher. And a few about Dave Van Horne who was the voice of baseball for me when I was young). I led us to crushing defeat.
# | Commenter | # Comments |
---|---|---|
1 | Tom Dakers | 68 |
2 | EMK19 | 57 |
3 | Link Floyd | 50 |
4 | DangYouToHeck | 43 |
5 | Alan F. | 37 |
6 | fishedin | 28 |
7 | yyzcalifornia | 28 |
8 | Sniderlover | 26 |
9 | Matt W | 24 |
10 | Minor Leaguer | 20 |
11 | Expo45 | 20 |
12 | Belisarius | 14 |
13 | lalalaprise | 13 |
14 | JaysfanDL | 13 |
15 | MapleMan | 13 |
16 | Chilango | 12 |
17 | OttawaJaysFan | 11 |
18 | FuriousG | 11 |