Jays win a wild one over Red Sox

Blue Jays 6 Red Sox 3

The Jays scored 4 runs in the first two innings against an extremely wild Garrett Richards. But we really should have scored more.

They scored one in the first:

• Cavan Biggio walked on four pitches, none of them close to strikes.
• Bo Bichette was hit by pitch, and for a moment I thought he was going to charge the mound. I miss George Bell.
• Vladimir Guerrero singled home Cavan.
• But then Rowdy Tellez hit into a double play and Randal Grichuk ground out. We should have scored more.

And three in the second:

• Marcus Semien singled.
• Josh Palacios walked. Semien stole second in there. It seemed like if you just let Richards pitch he would walk you.
• A wild pitch moved up both runners.
• Lourdes Gurriel hit a fly to right deep enough to score Marcus.
• Danny Jansen walked on four pitches.
• Cavan Biggio brought in Palacios with a ground out.
• Bo Bichette singled home Jansen.
• Vlad doubled.
• Rowdy ground out to end the inning.

And that’s where the scoring ended (at least until the top of the ninth). Richards went 4.2, allowed 4 hits, 4 earned, 6 walks, 1 hit batter, with 2 strikeouts. We should have scored more against him.

We got two badly needed insurance runs in the ninth:

• With one out, Bo reached on a swinging bunt.
• Vlad walked on five pitches.
• Alejandro Kirk, pinch hitter for Rowdy, single home Bo.
• Grichuk singled home Vlad.
• After Semien struck out, Jonathan Davis Walked (after a fly ball off the monster, that was just foul).
• Lourdes ground out to end the inning.

In total we had 10 hits and 8 walks, but only one extra-base hit, Vlad’s double.

The only Jay not to reach base was Tellez. He was 0 for 4 with a strikeout (and with how wild Richards was, going 0 for 4 was a tough thing to do). Bo. Vlad, Grichuk and Semien each had two hits. Cavan and Vlad had 2 walks each.

On the pitching side:

• Trent Thornton started and pitched 2 really good innings. I thought he could have gone out for a third but they are closer to the players than I am.
• Tommy Milone came in for the third and, after a leadoff single (could have been an error of Bichette), got three strikeouts. He pitched a quick 1, 2, 3, fourth. He had more troubles in the fifth. Marwin Gonzalez doubled over Randal’s head. Bobby Dalbec hit a roller down to third, and Biggio’s throw came up short and bounce wide of first. Vlad reached into the runner trying to catch it, a scary thing. After Milone’s fourth strikeout of the day in comes
• David Phelps came in. He gave up a run-scoring double, got a strikeout, gave up a walk to bring the go-ahead run to the plate but got a ground ball to Bo. I thought Bo had trouble getting it out of his glove, but his throw was in plenty of time.
• Ryan Borucki pitched the sixth and seventh giving up just a walk.
• Rafael Dolis gave up a home run to Xander Bogaerts (watching the replay I have no idea how he hit that, low and inside but get it over the monster. A two-out walk really got us sweating. He has to have drama to keep us awake while he pitches. Then he gets an easy ground ball to third, but Biggio threw it into the ground. Something that can’t happen there. Next batter, of course, hits a ground ball to Biggio. A longer throw, where he wasn’t moving towards first and he throws a strike. Amazingly we still had the lead.
• Tim Mayza started the ninth (with a 3-run lead). He gave up a single. Then he made a nice play on a swinging bunt. Then he got Alex Verdugo to strike out on 9 pitches. A couple of pitches before that, he popped one straight up, but the wind, which was an issue all game, blew the ball away from Jansen.
• Anthony Castro came in with 2-outs and the runner on first. I don’t understand the move, but Castro has looked good in his few appearances. He got a ground ball to Cavan at third, and Cavan threw a strike to Vlad. Castro gets the save.

Thornton says he could have gone longer:

Jays of the Day: Borucki (.165 WPA), Thornton (.094), Vlad (.133), Semien (.118), Bo (.101) and Kirk (.091).

Suckage: Tellez (-.147, he had a terrible time at the plate).

It might be a good thing that tomorrow is an off-day, I need a break after that.

We had 1308 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck was wilder than a wild bull in a china shop and led us to victory.