Quick Recap: Jays beat Phillies

Blue Jays 3 Phillies 1

Jays are now 11-7 on the spring.

The star of the game had to be Steven Matz. Five excellent innings. The one really hard-hit ball was the Bryce Harper RBI double (which I thought was a home run off the bat, the ball wasn’t traveling today. Matz went 5, allowed 5 hits, 1 earned, no walks with 6 strikeouts. 74 pitches, 53 strikes (the strike zone might have been a little on the large side today).

He wasn’t exactly helped by his defense. Danny Jansen bounced a throw to second, on a steal of second, we were lucky the runner didn’t go to third (Danny made a terrific throw to catch a base stealer a couple of innings later). Bo whiffed on a ground ball, which wasn’t called an error for unknown reasons. And Lourdes Gurriel made a dive for a ball that hit the ground 8 feet in front of him, turning a single into a double.

After Matz:

• Kirby Yates pitched the sixth. He went strikeout, flyout, strikeout. Looked smooth. Low 90s fastball. The splitter was the impressive pitch.
• Tyler Chatwood: Had 2 ground outs and a strikeout in the seventh.
• Joel Payamps: Had a lead-off single, then a hard line drive that found a glove, a walk and then pretty hard-hit double-play ball.
• Travis Bergan: Gave up a leadoff single bunted right down the third base line against the shift (making the announcers happy). Then a hit batter. Then three straight strikeouts.

On the batting side:

• George Springer: 1 for 2, walk and steal. .273.
• Marcus Semien: 0 for 3, walk, strikeout. .200. He hasn’t impressed me at the plate.
• Bo Bichette: 2 for 3, both doubles, walk, k. .240. He stole a base and was picked off second.
• Teoscar Hernandez: 1 for 3, walk, double, k. .273.
• Rowdy Tellez: 0 for 2, hit by pitch, k. .182. Did not look good at the plate. He is going to have to start hitting soon.
• Lourdes Gurriel: 0 for 3, 2 k. .241. Another that didn’t look good at the plate, and had the crappy play in the outfield.
• Cavan Biggio: 0 for 3, but hit the ball hard twice. .240. He made a couple of nice plays and throws at third.
• Randal Grichuk: 2 for 3, k. .261.
• Danny Jansen: 0 for 3. Hit the ball hard twice, deep flies, but the ball wasn’t carrying. .174.
• Leonardo Jimenez: 1 for 1, ground-rule double. Tripped over the bag at first and looked like he hurt his wrist.
• Logan Warmoth: 1 for 1.
• Riley Adams: Homerun in the eight.

Tomorrow it is Jays hosting the Yankees and it is on Sportsnet again. And, unless I’m mistaken, we should get Buck and Pat. After today’s announcers, I’ll be happy to have them (for at last the first three innings).

We had 409 comments in the GameThread, showing how much we want baseball on TV. radivel led us to fake victory.