Walk-off Panik, Jays beat Marlins

Marlins 5 Blue Jays 6

The bottom of the ninth made up for a long and tedious game.

Reese McGuire (and some wanted Espinal to pinch-hit) and Marcus Semien each singled to put the tying run on base in the bottom of the ninth. Jonathan Davis came in to pinch run for Reese. Bo Bichette, with three strikeouts already, got to two strikes and then sent a ball up the first baseline. It kicked around in right, Bo got a triple, tying the game. The Marlins walked Vlad and Teoscar, bringing Randal Grichuk up, who already had two home runs. But Grichuk ground one to third for an easy out at the plate.

But we weren’t worried. Joe Panik was up. And he hit the first pitch plenty deep to bring home Vlad for the walk-off win.

After throwing six scoreless innings against the Yankees, we looked forward to what Alek Manoah would do against the lighter hitting Marlins. It didn’t go the way we hoped.

Manoah gave up three home runs, three walks, and four earned in just 3.1 innings. His line could have looked a lot worse. In the fourth, with one out, he gave up a walk, hit a batter, and walked another to load the bases. In come Joel Payamps, in a pretty tough spot. But he got a strikeout and a ground out and saved Manoah’s ERA.

Payamps had a quick fifth inning and got the first out of the sixth. Six straight outs. Payamps does deserve a gold star or a very nice dram of scotch. The game could have become a blowout, but he got out of that bases-loaded moment without a run scoring.

Tim Mayza came in and got the last two outs of the sixth.

Trent Thornton gave up a solo homer in the seventh.

Carl Edwards Jr started the eight (in the pouring rain). He got through the inning with just a single against him.

Anthony Castro seemed to take an hour to get three outs in the top of the ninth. I was grumbling that I wanted this to end. But he didn’t give up a run.

Until the ninth, it was the Randal Grichuk show. He hit two home runs. Unfortunately, both solo homers.

We had a shot at a comeback in the seventh. Our old friend, Anthony Bass, walked Marcus Semien and Bo Bichette. Vladimir Guerrero lined one to right. I was sure it was going to be over the right fielder, but it was caught. Teoscar Hernandez followed with an easy ground ball up the middle, but Marlins shortstop Jazz Chisholm booted it, allowing Semien to score from second, making it a two-run game. Unfortunately, Randal couldn’t hit his third home run of the day, striking out.

Thank goodness for an excellent bottom of the ninth.

Jays of the Day: Bichette (.564 WPA) and Payamps (.143). FanGraphs seems to have broken before Panik’s sac fly (likely because no one knew how to score it), but of course, he’s getting a JoD. I’m giving one to Grichuk too, he didn’t have the number, but I figure you hit two home runs, you are a JoD.

Suckage: Sorry, Alek, but you got a -.319. Don’t worry. There will be many more JoD’s in your future (just like the one in your first start).

Tomorrow is an off-day. And then we play the Astros.

We had 720 comments in the GameThread. delv213 led us to a rather incredible victory.