Jays barely hold on to beat Phillies

Phillies 8 Blue Jays 10

There are times when the recap can’t properly describe what the game was like. We had a huge early lead, but we almost gave the game back.

The bats got started early today. By the end of the third inning, the Jays were up 8 nothing and, we thought they could coast from there. But it turned out there was a fair bit of drama ahead.

It seems that all the pitching injuries are catching up to us. The bullpen had a bad day again.

On offense we had:

• Two runs in the first: Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette went back-to-back to start the game and great old friend, Chase Anderson.
• Five runs in the second: Santiago Espinal “tripled,” a ball that really should have been caught by the right-fielder Scott Kingery. Danny Jansen singled him home. Marcus Semien followed with a double, again not the greatest fielding. Bo singled both runners home. And then Vlad doubled Bo to third. After a walk to Teoscar Hernandez, which ended Anderson’s day, a Randal Grichuk double scored Bo and Vlad. We would have scored more, but Randal was doubled off second on a Rowdy Tellez line drive. Randal either thought there were two outs or figured no Phillie could make a catch.
• One in the third: Doubles from Lourdes Gurriel and Semien.

Another run scored in the seventh. Rowdy was hit by pitch, and then Jean Segura decided not to field a tailor-made double-play ball by Espinal. After Danny Jansen was hit by pitch, Tellez scored on a Semien ground out, his third RBI.

Vlad homered in the eighth to give us more of a cushion.

We had 16 hits, including 3 home runs, a defense-aided triple, and six doubles. Semien and Vlad had 3 hits each. Bo and Danny had 2 each.

The Phillies made two official errors and at least 3 other plays that should have been errors. There were 2 fly balls to right that should have been caught.

Robbie Ray threw four excellent innings. He had some trouble in the fifth, giving up back-to-back homers to start the inning and then triple and a pair of singles. There was also a rare Vlad Guerrero error, which should have been a double play, but a double play ended the inning. Sent back out for the sixth, he gave up Nick Maton’s second home run of the day. In all, 5.2 innings, 7 hits, 4 earned, 1 walk, and 9 strikeouts.

Joel Payamps got the next four outs, giving up just a walk.

Tim Mayza started the eighth and had a very tough time. 3 hits, 2 earned, getting just 2 outs, and bringing in Jordan Romano (in a save opportunity). One of the hits against Mayza should have been caught, a popup in front of Gurriel. Both and Bo went for it, and both pulled up. Lourdes should have called it.

Romano finished the eight off fine but started the ninth off with a walk and called out the trainer. He stayed in the game, for the moment. He got two outs but then was taken out of the game. He didn’t look entirely comfortable out there. I really don’t want more injuries.

Jeremy Beasley came in. Gave up a single hit right at Grichuk (moved over to left for Davis in center). A walk brought the tying run to the plate and added about 100 grey hair to my head. A single off the wall in right didn’t help the situation. Go ahead, run on, Harper at-bat. Beastley went to a full count before striking out Bryce (who had some good cuts). I hope Harper didn’t aggravate the shoulder injury.

The Phillies played bad defense, but the Jays weren’t much better. The Vlad error, the single between Bo and Lourdes. Grichuk didn’t see a fly ball that ended up landing 30 feet from him. Lourdes also dropped a fly ball for his first official error of the year (he’s had several unofficial ones). It was not a fielding clinic for either team.

Of note, Rowdy came out of the game with a leg injury after his single in the eighth. Scott Kingery of the Phillies also left the game for unknown reasons, bringing Bryce Harper in, who couldn’t throw. He attempted a bunt in his first at-bat.

Jays of the Day: Semien (.148 WPA) and Bichette (.113).

No Suckage Jays. Tellez had the low mark at -.075.

Tomorrow is a needed off day. I think we had enough stress today.

We had 762 comments in the GameThread. I led us to victory, and no I didn’t sweat through all my clothes.