Matz was terrific, Jays beat Yankees

Blue Jays 6 Yankees 2

I don’t know about you, but I really needed that win.

Steven Matz was terrific. I can’t imagine any pitcher doing a better job than Matz did today. First inning, 3 strikeouts. Second inning, a single, 2 strikes, and a soft liner. Third, 2 strikeouts, single, fly out. Fourth, no strikeouts, but 3 up, 3 down. Fifth, 2 strikeouts, a single, and a fly-out. Sixth, three ground outs around a soft single. Seventh pop out, strikeout, and what should have been a strikeout, but for a lousy plate umpire, instead of double, single, and he’s out of the game.

In all, Matz went 6.2, 6 soft hits, 1 earned, no walks, and 10 strikeouts. Just amazing. 112 pitches would have been less if the plate ump could have given him a strike three call.

Tyler Chatwood comes in with a runner on first. And walks the first batter but got a ground ball back to him to end the inning. He gave up a walk in the eighth but got out of the inning on an excellent 5-4-3 double play.

Jordan Romano pitched the ninth with a 5 run lead, but the way things have been, I’m ok with going with him in that spot. There was some complaining, but he was warming up when it was a four-run lead, and I am good with the team not inviting any drama. With the help of the umpire, who missed a strike three call again, and an error in the outfield, he gave up a run.

On offense? Well, we should have scored more. We scored:

• Two in the third: Bo singled, and Vlad hit his league-leading 16th home run.
• One in the third: Lourdes Gurriel hit a solo homer. He hit one yesterday. I’m hoping it is a trend.
• Two in the seventh: Singles from Randal Grichuk, Rowdy Tellez, and Gurriel loaded the bases. Santiago Espinal, pinch-hitting (can we not open a roster spot for someone who can actually swing a bat in a pinch-hit role?). He grounded to short, but Gleyber Torrez threw wild home (Rowdy was crossing in front of him as he was throwing, maybe that got his attention, or perhaps he is a crappy shortstop). Two runs score on the error.
• One in the ninth: Randal goes deep.

We had 13 hits in all, with 3 home runs and 4 walks. So, we should have done better than 6 runs. With RISP, we were 2 for 12. A couple more hits in those spots, and it would have been a more comfortable win, but then I’m not complaining about any success.

We got two hits each from Semien, Bichette, Guerrero (and a walk), Grichuk, and Gurriel.

The only batter in the starting lineup not to hit was Joe Panik, and he took a walk and came out of the game for Espinal to pinch-hit.

Jays of the Day: Matz (.305 WPA) and Vlad (.166).

No one had the Suckage number.

Tomorrow we have game two vs. the Evil Ones. Some minor league scrub is starting for the Jays, Alek Manoah? Never heard of him.

We had 984 comments in the GameThread (and after the games of this weekend, I thought I would be alone in there. DangYouToHeck led us to a very needed victory. Great job, young man.