Another day, another loss

Ray 14 Blue Jays 8 (11 innings)

Since Ross Stripling has been having troubles in the first inning, the Blue Jays decided to try an opener today. For Ross, it worked fine. He was terrific. But Trent Thornton had a terrible time as the opener. Not that it was all his fault. In the first:

• Randy Arozarena singled on the first pitch of the game.
• Austin Meadows flew out.
• Brandon Lowe struck out. Then it got worse.
• Manuel Margot grounded one at Santiago Espinal at third, and he booted it. Espinal has been so good on defense, and the ball gets to you very quickly at third, but he should have made that play. And it would have ended the inning.
• Ji-Man Choi walked on a full count, on a pitch that looked like it caught the bottom of the zone. Reese McGuire and Trent were walking off the field.
• Taylor Walls walked. Again, ball four was a very close pitch on the outside corner. That got Pete Walker thrown out of the game when he politely inquired if the umpire's vision problems had something to do with his mother, who she ummmm chose to mate with. That brought in a run. Robo umps can’t come quick enough.
• Joey Wendle hit a grand slam.

Then Trent got out of the inning. 2 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 5 unearned runs.

Ross Stripling came in and threw the 7 best innings of his Blue Jays career. He was great. 7 innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts, no runs. Just a super job.

Jordan Romano pitched the ninth, showing off a 100 mph fastball. Just unhittable, three strikeouts.

On offense, it was the Vladimir Guererro show. Vlad:

Homered in the fourth inning, the first of back-to-backs with Teoscar Hernandes. Vlad’s homer went 461 feet.

And he homered with 2 outs in the eighth after Rowdy Tellez got on base with a triple (no, I haven’t been drinking, Rowdy legged out a triple) to tie the game. This one only 384 feet.

Lourdes Gurriel homered in the second inning.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t score in the ninth and we were off to extras.

Marcus Semien hit our fifth home run of the game in the 10th.

In extras:

Top of the tenth:

Anthony Castro comes in. I would have liked to have Romano stay out there, but they are closer to it than me. Mike Zunino was the Manfred runner. Castro got Kiermaier to strike out. Arozarena walked. Austin Meadows doubled one in. After a strikeout, Manuel Margot singled in one more. A pop-out ended the inning, but we were down by two again.

Bottom of the tenth:

Davis on second. Jeffrey Springs out for his second inning. Jansen flew out to left. Marcus Semien homers to make it a tie game again. As I said in the recap, Rays fans are complaining about Cash leaving him in for a second inning, like Jays' fans were complaining about Romano coming out. Bo beat out an infield hit. Vlad, not getting out poetic it would be to homer again, got a soft fly to center. Teoscar pops out.

Top of the eleventh:

Payamps in. Brosseau on. A walk and a pop fly single that falls between Teoscar and Davis. I don’t know how that isn’t caught. Bases loaded. A single scores two. Payamps out. Soft contact that falls in on both hits. Mayza in with runners on first and second. A strikeout. A double off the wall scored another. A ground out scored run number four of the inning. Mayza walked lefty Brandon Lowe, on four pitches, just to prolong this. Manuel Margot pounded a 2-run triple off the left-field wall. A ground ball bounced right through Espinal for yet another run. A strikeout ended the inning after 7 runs score.

Bottom of the eleventh:

Who cares.

Jays of the Day: Stripling (.215 WPA), Romano (.144), Semien (.305), Vlad (.363), and Tellez (.148, all on that triple)

Suckage: Thornton (-.355), Payamps (-.280), Castro (-.121), Davis (-.326, 0 for 4, and not making that catch in the 11th), Espinal (-.171, 0 for 4, plus the error in the first).

We had 1077 comments in the GameThread. EMK19 let us to yet another loss.