Four hits for Vlad, Jays beat Marlins

Marlins 1 Blue Jays 5

Vladimir Guerrero had a double, home run, and two singles, but what impressed me the most was him going first to third on a ground out to third base. He coasted to second, then, when the throw went to first, he turned on the jets and was comfortably safe.

We got yet another very good start from Robbie Ray. He went 6 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned, 2 walks, and 9 strikeouts. He was in control all way. And, if Lourdes Gurriel could go back on a fly ball, it would have been 5 hits and no runs allowed (and maybe an extra-inning of pitching):

Tim Mayza came out for the seventh inning, worrying me, as he’s been terrible lately, but he had a lovely 1, 2, 3 inning.

Rafael Dolis had an equally good eighth inning, three strikeouts on 11 pitches. It may have been Dolis’ first inning of work that didn’t last longer than half an hour.

Jordan Romano took the ninth, despite the home run from Lourdes to make it a four-run lead, since he was warmed up and I don’t know that there was time to get someone else up and ready. Jordan had a tough time of it, loading the bases on a hit and two walks, before going full count on the man that was the tying run at the plate.

On offense, it was the Vlady show. He was 4 for 4 with a double and a 412 foot home run that was out of the park in no time. He drove in 3 runs.

Other than Vlad? Gurriel had 3 hits, including an eight-inning home run (so I shouldn’t complain so much about him not making that catch in left), to take away a save opportunity from Romano.

Marcus Semien had two hits, going the other way and beating the shift. Buck and Pat made the point that the Marlins must be a season behind on their scouting. Bo Bichette and Rowdy each had a hit as well.

After having a great time in Cleveland, Joe Panik had an 0 for, along with Teoscar Hernandez, Randal Grichuk, and Reese McGuire.

Jays of the Day: Vlad (.284 WPA) and Ray (.231).

Suckage? McGuire had the number (-.091). He made a pretty nice throw to third trying to get Starling Marte stealing. It was a very close play, the Jays challenged the safe call. I thought he was out, but there was a slow-motion replay that seemed to show that Marte slid into Panik’s arm but not the glove, and the tag came after his hand got to the bag.

Tomorrow night we go for the sweep of the two-game series.

We had 763 comments in the GameThread. DangYouToHeck led us to victory.