OOTP Season Sim: Games 136-139

The sim Blue Jays hosted the sim-A’s in a four game series, running from August 28th to the 31st. At the start of the series, the Jays were tied with the Yankees for first place in the AL East. The A’s are third in the AL West 71-61.

Game 136

A’s 3 Blue Jays 5

Anthony Kay made his 10th start for the Jays. He went 6.1, allowed 7 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk with 2 strikeouts, picking up his 4th win. Rafael Dolis, Eduardo Dolis and Ken Giles pitched the last 2.2 scoreless, Giles getting his 27th save. OOTP is a nice world were Giles elbow is in one piece.

The Jays scored all their runs in the first two innings:

• 3 in the first: Cavan Biggio, leading off, reached on error, went to second on a Lourdes Gurriel ground out, stole third and scored on a Vlad Jr. single. An out later, Rowdy Tellez his his 16th home run of the season.
• 2 in the season: Teoscar Hernandez singled and Reese McGuire homered, his 10th.

Tellez had a good day, going 2 for 2, with 2 walks. Vlad and McGuire also had 2 hits each.

Of note: Alejandro Kirk made the first start of his sim career, going 0 for 4 in the DH spot.

24,953 sim fans came out to watch their first place team.

Game 137

A’s 2 Blue Jays 4

On offense, we scored:

• 2 in the second: Kirk DHing for the second day in a row had a 2-out single and Randal Grichuk homered, his 24th of the season.
• 2 in the eighth: Again with 2 out, Bo Bichette singled and Tellez hit his second home run of in two days, his 17th of the season.

Sim Charlie really fan through the pitchers today. But there was a reason for it:

• Aaron Sanchez made his 8th start since coming over in trade from the Mariners. He went 2.2 before leaving the game with an injury. Fortunately it is just a day-to-day thing and should make his next start. He allowed 1 hit, 1 walk with 4 strikeouts.
• Chase Anderson followed, giving us 2 innings, allowing 3 hits, 1 earned, with a walk getting all 6 outs via the strikeout.
• Jordan Romero went 1.2, giving up 2 hits, a run with 4 strikeouts. Through 6 innings, 3 Jays pitchers struck out 14 batters.
• Kyle Crockett pitched the seventh. He also came out of the game with an injury, but again he’s just day-to-day.
• Eduardo Jimenez pitched a perfect 8th, getting the win. He’s now 6-0.
• Ken Giles picked up his 28th save.

Caleb Joseph also came out of the game with an injury (Joseph was called up when Danny Jansen went down with an injury.

The Jays made a couple of roster moves after the game:

• Our old friend Erik Kratz was picked up off waivers from the Yankees. Kratz was hitting .160 for the Yankees, so I don’t understand why we would want him.
• Kennys Vargas was claimed off waivers from the Tigers. Vargas was hitting .212/.310/.434 in 113 PA for the Tigers.

To make room, Reese McGuire and Alejandro Kirk were optioned to Buffalo.

Also Eduardo Jimenez (with his 3.72 ERA in 58 innings) was optioned to New Hamshire (yep, skipping Buffalo) and Wilner Font, who had a 6.39 ERA in Buffalo was called up.

Game 138

A’s 8 Blue Jays 3

Hyun Jin Ryu had his second poor start in a row, giving up 4 runs in 5 innings. And he tied a season high with 2 walks (after 25 starts, he now has 18 walks. With a bit more than a month left in the season, he has a very good chance to finish with more starts than walks.

Anthony Bass gave up 3 unearned runs, helped along by a Bo Bichette error, he had 2 in the game, giving him 14 on the season. Crockett, recovered from his injury, pitched the last 2.1 innings.

On offense, we had 11 hits, but only the 3 runs, despite 2 home runs from Teoscar Hernandez, bringing him up to 20 on the season. Gurriel had 3 hits and a walk. Vlad had 2 hits.

Kennys Vargas (0 for 4) and Erik Kratz (1 for 4, k) made their first starts for the Jays.

After the game, Danny Jansen was activated from the IL and Kratz (picked up just yesterday) was DFAed. The Angels put in a claim. Seems that the Jays were surprised that Jansen would come off the IL.

Game 139

A’s 4 Blue Jays 14

The offense is back.

We had 13 hits, including 2 home runs (Tellez 18th and Bichette 37th). Bo had 5 RBI, Tellez 3. Biggio, Vlad, Bo, Grichuk and Jansen had 2 hits each.

Tanner Roark got the win, even though he gave up 3 home runs in 6 innings. Font pitched his first inning since coming up.

Tellez had quite the series, getting 3 home runs in the 3 games. He is hitting .229/.287/.469 with 18 home runs in 73 games.

The game go into September in first place, half a gave up from the Yankees. They start the month with 3 games at home against the Tigers.

Game 136

Game 137

Game 138

Game 139