Jays score 15, beat the Angels

Angels 1 Blue Jays 15

The bats came back.

So I’d love to be able to explain the Jays 7 run second inning. Let’s just run through it:

• Santiago Espinal lined a single to right to start the inning. I have a hard time seeing how he doesn’t stay with the team. He made a great bare-handed play in the top of the inning too.
• Jonathan Davis walked. Not an easy thing to do because the umpire’s strike zone seemed to be five feet wide.
• The long play. Danny Jansen ground one to Albert Pujols at first. Pujols threw to second and Jose Iglasias threw wide of first, allowing Espinal to score and Jansen to go to second. BUT the Angels challenged Davis’ slide into second, when he took Iglasias out. A good old-fashioned takeout slide. But rules have changed, takeout slides aren’t supposed to happen. On the other side, the Jays challenged that Iglasias didn’t touch second after catching the throw from Pujols. After a very long delay (10 minutes), they ruled Davis’ slide was legal (I don’t know if I agree) and that Iglasias didn’t touch second (I agree). When the dust cleared, Espinal still scored, Davis was awarded second and Jansen was moved back to first.
• When we came back to baseball, Josh Palacios bunted and beat it out. I have no idea how, everyone in the ballpark knew he was bunting but Rendon was playing way too deep at third. Bases loaded.
• Marcus Semien struck out chasing. Really poor at bat.
• Bo Bichette walked. Run number two comes in and bases still loaded. Nice at bat.
• Vlad Guerrero walked. Run number three comes in.
• Randal Grichuk doubled, bringing all three runners home, 6-0.
• Rowdy Tellez strikes out. Terrible at bat.
• Espinal singled for the second time this inning, Randal scores. 7-0. Yes, I’d love him to stay up with the team, and take Panik’s spot, but it won’t be happening now. Maybe later in the season.
• Davis lined out.

Matz sat for over half an hour and still pitched a nice third inning.

That was enough scoring, but we’d score seven more, three in the third and four in the fourth.

We had 13 hits and 9 walks in total. If you told me we hadn’t had 9 walks all season up until now, I’d likely believe you.

Some highlights:

• Bo Bichette: 2 for 4, both doubles, walk and 5 RBI.
• Vlad: 2 for 3, 2 walks, 3 RBI.
• Randal Grichuk: 2 for 4, walk. 3 RBI.
• Santiago Espinal: 3 for 5, double, RBI. He played some great defense at third too.
• Josh Palacios: 4 for 4, walk, RBI. What a great day for him.

The only Jays not to get a hit or a walk were Rowdy Tellez (0 for 5, 2 k) and Danny Jansen (0 for 5).

Lost in all the offense was a very good start from Steven Matz. 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned (a Rendon home run), 3 walks and 4 strikeouts. As he had a few innings where he was sitting on the bench for a long time, I’m very impressed with his start.

Tommy Milone threw the last 3 innings. He gets the save. I love 3 inning saves.

Jays of the Day: Grichuk (.135 WPA), Matz (.124), Vlad (.091) and Bo (.083). And I’m giving one to Palacios, for getting his first, second, third and fourth MLB hits.

No Suckage Jays. Marcus Semien had the low mark at -.083.

Tomorrow, or today for those of you east of me, we finish up the series with the Angels, a 1:00 start, though there is rain in the forecast.

We had 1174 comments in the GameThread. I led us to the massive victory.

Goodnight all.