Jays lose to Yankees

Blue Jays 3 Yankees 5

It seemed to be the game of bloop hits. There were a ton of them falling between the infielder and the outfielders.

We can’t complain we didn’t get chances. Unfortunately, 1 for 12 with RISP doesn’t get it done. Not that the Yankees couldn’t have scored more too, but that’s not our problem. Corey Kluber (if you were naming your kid Corey and the last name was Kluber wouldn’t you spell it Korey? No? Just me?) wasn’t good, but we only got two runs off him, and one of them was unearned.

Ross Stripling was, how to put it, much like you would have expected. 3.1 innings, 7 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, 1 home run, 3 runs against. It would have been nice if he could have gone a little deeper in the game, but he got up to 77 pitches. I wouldn’t expect much more than that from him. He kept us in the game is a nice way of saying it.

One of the three earned runs against him came after he left the game. Tyler Chatwood came in with a runner on first and gave up three straight singles, bringing in Stripling’s third earned. Chatwood had a bit of bad luck, softly hit balls going to the right spot.

Rafael Dolis had a rough time of it, giving up three walks while getting just two outs. His pitches were really moving but way off the strike zone. Tim Mayza came in and got Jay Bruce to pop one up into short left, but Lourdes Gurriel plays a very deep left, and he couldn’t get to it. Two runs scored—bad luck but also poor playing in the outfield.

Mayza looked really good, getting the first two outs of the seventh. Joel Payamps (who Dan and Buck called Pieamps, confusing me because I thought I knew the pronunciation, came in with 2 out and looked really good getting the last four outs.

On offense, we had 8 hits, including a home run, 3 walks, and a hit batter, so we’d expect more than 3 runs.

Marcus Semien had the best day at the plate, going 2 for 4 with a walk and hitting our home runs, driving in 2 of our 3 runs. Our other run scored on an error by Gary Sanchez on a throw to second when Semien stole the base. Other than Marcus, we had 6 singles in 29 at-bats.

Rowdy Tellez had a rough day, 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts.

The defense that looked good yesterday wasn’t as good today. Bo showed why I was hoping we’d get a good defensive SS and move him to second (but you aren’t moving him for Semien on a one-year contract). And Vlad missed making a scoop on one short hop (but he’s had a number of those in the first two games), and he came off the bag stretching for a throw. A tough play, but maybe it should have been made.

And we had too many pop flies landing between in the infield and outfield (though so did the Yankees). Lourdes is going to have to play a little more shallow. He doesn’t go back well at all, but we can’t give up those cheap hits. And Hernandez had one of those too.

And the real rant. In the ninth inning, down 2, we need a baserunner, and Charlie picks Joe Panik to pinch-hit. Panik should never be the pinch-hit choice unless, somehow, I’m at the plate. I’d much rather have Jansen in that spot than Panik, but I’d have taken Kirk over both. Just the wrong choice.

Jay of the Game: Semien (.280 WPA). Honorable mention to Payamps for keeping the game close.

Suckage: Tellez (-.180, he’s going to have to work his way out of this), Gurriel (-.114, plus the defense), Bichette (-.099, plus a poor day with the glove), Biggio (-.092, also having a rough start with the bat, but just two games),

Tomorrow we have another 1:00 start, the rubber match against the Yankees, so we’ll see those lovely shadows between the mound and the plate. Yankees are smart to use O’Day in that spot.

Stripling had a -.100, but I’m letting him off the hook and Mayza a -.113, that that was for the pop fly that wasn’t caught.

We had 911 comments in the GameThread. I led us to defeat. But we didn’t have anyone banned today, so a positive.