Bichette homers twice, but Jays still lose

Blue Jays 4 Rangers 7

The score is somewhat misleading, it makes the game seem closer than it was.

It isn’t hugely surprising, but Tanner Roark had a rough time of it. Giving a bit of fairness, he could have used some help from his defense.

First inning, first hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a ground ball to third that Cavan Biggio backed up on instead of going to get the ball and it ate him up. Two outs later, home run, when he should have been out of the inning. Third inning, one out single, double play ground ball to Bo Bichette, but it gets stuck in his glove, Bo did well to get the runner at first. And, of course, next batter homers.

Yeah, your pitcher should pick up his defense, but this is Tanner Roark. He needs all the plays made behind him.

Anyway, 3 innings, 6 hits, 5 earned, no walks, 2 strikeouts and 3 homers stained Roark’s line. Honestly, I would have been fine leaving him out there for another inning, but Tommy Milone came in. Roark’s next start might be important for him, with Ray coming back, Roark looks to be the one I’d punt from the rotation.

Milone pitched a nice quick fourth. And he was helped out by a very nice double play in the fifth. Two one, ground ball over third, Cavan grabs it, hits the bag and makes a very nice off-balance throw to Vlad, who made a nice stretch to catch the throw. Milone gave up a solo homer in the sixth. So three innings, 3 innings 3 hits, 1 earned, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts. He made a nice play covering first on a ground ball to Vlad. The throw was slightly behind him, he did a spin as he caught it, and still managed to step on the bag.

Ryan Borucki pitched a nice quick seventh. Seeing Ryan’s stuff after getting to see Roark and Milone struggle to hit 90 on the gun must have been interesting for the Rangers.

Phelps got the ninth. I likely would have used Ryan for two but Phelps hasn’t looked great so far this year, so maybe a good idea to let him have an inning. 2 singles and a passed ball cost him a run.

On offense, we only scored one run off Dane Dunning (whoever that might be) (that’s kind of mean Tom), in five innings. Bo hit a home run in the first. We only managed 2 more hits against him in his 5 innings, and we struck out 6 times.

We got our second and third runs in the seventh. Vlad walked, Lourdes Gurriel singled. Two wild pitches scored Vlad (I didn’t think it was a great idea to go for home on the second one, down by five, but Vlad got in there) and then Randal drove in Lourdes with a nice single to opposite field.

Bo hit his second home run of the game in the eighth against Matt Bush. We were down by just 2 for a moment there.

Other than Bo and Randal (2 for 3), it was a rough night for the bats. 6 hits and 1 walk in total. Semien, Biggio, Vlad (tho he had a walk), Tellez and Kirk all had 0 fors.

Until tonight, I’ve enjoyed every game of the young season (and seeing Bo slug two helped tonight), but this game just wasn’t fun. I’m grumpy anyway, my laptop is, I’m hoping, off getting fixed and I’m using an old laptop which isn’t exactly the best.

Jay of the Day: Bo (.112 WPA).

Suckage: Roark (-.260) and Semien (-.102, for an 0 for 4, with 2 strikeouts).

Tomorrow’s game is a 2:00 Eastern start. Ryu gets the start so it will be better than today.

We had 740 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck led us to crushing defeat.