Jays win second last game of the season

Orioles 2 Blue Jays 5

Winning the penultimate game is nice.

We got an excellent start out of T.J. Zeuch. 5 innings, 5 hits, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts. I bet we haven’t had a pitching line of 4 or more innings with no walks or strikeouts this season. Zeuch was just a ground ball machine. 11 ground outs to 1 fly out. I’m wondering if his 5 innings takes him out of the discussion for a spot on the playoff roster.

Chase Anderson was terrific in 2 innings of relief. He struck out the side in his first inning. In his second inning, he gave up a single, while getting another strikeout. In our OOTP 2020 season, Anderson’s stuff played up in relief. I wonder if it works the same in real life. He made me think that I’d like him to have a relief job in the playoffs.

There was an interesting play in Anderson’s seventh inning, Hanser Alberto tried to bunt for a base hit but the ball bounced up and hit him as he was leaving the batter’s box. Alejandro Kirk was quick to point it out, and the umpire called him out. It was close, he was on the edge of the box when he was hit. You rarely see the batter called out on that.

Ross Stripling had a rougher inning. He gave up a single to Austin Hays and then a double to Jose Iglesias which, with a bad throw in from the outfield, scored Hays. Teoscar made up or that bad throw on the next batter, bare handing a ball bounced off the right field wall and throwing a strike to second for the first out of the inning. Another run scored, but the throw was perfect. Next batter, DJ Stewart ground one off Stripling’s leg. Kirk made a great play to get to the ball quick and get the out at first. Stripling was limping and came out of the game. They are saying a contusion.

Anthony Bass came in to get the last out of the inning. He had a quick ninth for his 7th save of the season.

The Jays had troubles with John Means. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, when Cavan Biggio ended it with a two-out home run.

We had more luck with the Orioles bullpen, scoring 4 runs off four relievers in 2 innings, helped along by some bad O’s defense.

Three runs scored in the seventh. Teoscar was hit by pitch, thankfully off the elbow pad, by Hunter Harvey. Then Vlad reached on an error by second baseman Ramon Urias. Urias tried to short hop his ground ball. It could have been called a hit. And then Randal Grichuk homered. It is nice to think he could be getting hot just in time for the playoffs.

And one more in the eighth. Biggio and Villar led off with singles, putting runners on the corners. Vlad ground one to the pitcher, but catcher Pedro Severino couldn’t catch the throw home.

There was a strange moment when Villar stole third on the throw back from the catcher to the pitcher. My wife called it little league baseball. It was a close play, the Orioles challenged the call. I’m still not sure he was safe. Don’t do that in the playoffs Jonathan.

Lourdes Gurriel also came out of the game, after fouling a ball off his foot. I’m hoping he’ll be fine for the playoffs.

We only had 5 hits, but 2 of them were homers. And the Orioles had 2 errors.

Jays of the Day: Zeuch (.291 WPA), Anderson (.178), Biggio (.152) and Grichuk (.104).

No Suckage Jays. Joe Panik had the low mark at -.065.

Tomorrow is the last game of the irregular season. All games start at 3:00 Eastern. A Jays win and a Yankees loss flip flops the two teams in the playoff pool.

We had 464 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck led us to victory.