Jays manage just 2 hits, lose to Royals

Blue Jays 0 Royals 2

Just when we thought the bats were getting going, they have gone stone cold again.

Just 2 hits today. We aren’t going to win many games with just 2 singles in nine innings. I really didn’t expect we wouldn’t hit this year. I don’t know what’s going on with the bats.

We had chances:

• We had two on, in the second. Kirk walked, and Joe Panik singled, but Jonathan Davis struck out to end the inning.
• Two on in the third, Bo Bichette singled (our last hit of the game), and Vladimir Guerrero walked (on four pitches, they seemed to be pitching around him), but Randal Grichuk struck out.
• And two on in the fourth. Rowdy Tellez reached on an error, and Kirk walked to start the inning. But Panik ground out, Davis hit a soft fly, and Palacios ground out.

But we wouldn’t get another baserunner over the last five innings.

In all, we were 2 for 30 with the bats. Grichuk had a really rough day, going 0 for 4, all strikeouts.

On the pitching side, Robbie Ray loaded the bases in the first and second inning. And then in the third, he just had 2 guys on (improvement) and yet didn’t give up a run. It really was some magic act. Ray fought his way through 5 innings, allowing 4 hits and 6 walks but no runs. I don’t think that was a recipe for continued success, but it worked out today.

Tim Mayza pitched a nice sixth inning, allowing a single to Kyle Isbel, but then he was erased trying to move up to second on a ball that got away from Alejandro Kirk, but Kirk made an excellent throw to second after picking it up.

TJ Zeuch had a rough time. His first 3 pitches went single, homer, double, and we were down 2-0 in about a minute. That turned out to be the game.

Tanner Roark got the last out of the seventh and pitched a quick eighth.

Jay of the Day: Ray (.288 WPA). There may have been some luck or maybe magic, but he didn’t allow a run.

Suckage: Zeuch (-.293), Grichuk (-.155), Davis (-.128), Semien (-.110) and Palacios (-.099).

Man, I’m hoping Springer is back soon. I don’t want to see Davis and Palacios in the lineup together again.

Tomorrow is an off-day, then we have two in Boston. Ryu starts Tuesday night.

We had 692 comments in the GameThread. I led us to an offensiveless (not a word? A few more games like that, and it will be) defeat.