Jays win a close game they probably should have lost

Blue Jays: 2, Marlins: 1

One of these days I could do with a blow out win. All these close games have my heart rate at late 2016 levels and my smart watch can only alert me to breathe so many times.

The game started out the same way far too many of our games have lately, that is, filled with many stupid mistakes. I missed the first couple innings and was advised by our GameThread commenters to not go back and re-watch. I wish I had taken their advice.

Jonathan Villar, batting third against his former team, hit a single to left field and foolishly tried to turn it into a double. He was out by a lot. In the second inning, Gurriel reached first safely on a two-out single, but got a very late break on a passed ball and was thrown out.

In Hyun-Jin Ryu’s second inning, Brian Anderson hit a high looper into shallow right and dropped into the Bermuda triangle between three jogging Blue Jays in Teoscar Hernandez, Villar and Rowdy Tellez.

The next batter, Corey Dickerson, hit a grounder right to Villar, who threw wide of second base pulling Santiago Espinal off, and earning an error. Thankful Ryu is a magician and got out of the inning without allowing either of those runs to score.

In the fourth inning, Villar continued to fail to endear himself to his new team. He had a two-out single, and made it to third on a Teoscar single behind him, but was picked off third as he was too far up the baseline. Just another absolutely boneheaded TOOTBLAN.

The Jays took the lead in the 5th. Tellez singled, and Gurriel launched one off of top Marlins’ prospect Sixto Sanchez way out to left center. The Jays offense was practically non-existent after that, as Shaw’s “double” (that should have been an out) was their only hit.

The Rays got one back in the bottom of the 5th. Jon Berti and Starling Marte had back-to-back two out singles, then Berti scored on a single by Garrett Cooper.

In all, Ryu threw 99 pitches over 6 innings, allowing five hits and the one earned run. He struck out eight batters and walked only two, bringing his ERA down to 2.72. He is the reason the Jays won the game today.

AJ Cole pitched the 7th, giving up a walk and a single but thankfully no runs.

Travis Shaw led of the 8th with a double on a ball that popped out of Dickerson’s glove, but they Jays couldn’t score him.

Rafael Dolis pitched in the 8th, and hit the first batter with his first pitch, but retired the next three batters to end the inning.

Anthony Bass pitched a quick and easy 9th and I was grateful.

Jays of the Day: Ryu (+0.239 WPA), Bass (.192), Gurriel (.191) Dolis (.138) and Cole (.106)

Suckage: Biggio (-.114) and Villar deserves one even though he doesn’t have the number.

Tomorrow, the Jays head to Boston for a four game series with the Red Sox. Taijuan Walker will face Martin Perez.

We had 538 comments in the GameThread. EMK19 pulled out the win.