Jays hit 5 home runs, beat Mets

Blue Jays 10 Mets 3

I gotta say, we might be on a little losing jag, but boy, the defense has been good lately.

• Cavan Biggio looks excellent (and confident) at third.
• Lourdes Gurriel made yet another great throw from left field.
• George Springer made one of the best catches you’ll ever see in center field (yeah, he dropped one later in the game).
• They turned three double plays, including a nice 3-6-3 double play. The one in the seventh was a thing of beauty. Bo Bichette also made a great grab on a hard-hit ground ball that inning.
• Teoscar made a nice catch at the top of the wall in right field in the eighth inning.

Much was made of Charlie changing around the batting order, and, well, it definitely didn’t hurt. I am a fan of moving guys around when the team is in a funk.

It was a day of home runs for our Blue Jays. We had 5 of them (along with a handful of fly balls to the track):

• Springer hit one out to start the third inning.
• Teoscar Hernandez had a two-run homer later that inning.
• Marcus Semien hit a three-run homer in the fifth.
• Bo hit the longest, 414 feet (I think Statcast is underestimating this one), 109 MPH off the bat.
• Teoscar hit his second of the game in the ninth, a two-run shot. However, we did get a run that wasn’t a home run that inning. Semien led off the inning with a single. He went first to third on a wild pitch (a nice bit of baserunning there), and Bo drove him home with a single.

All those home runs, but the two hardest-hit balls of the game were off Vladimir Guerrero’s bat. He had a 115.9 MPH double and a 111.2 MPH single.

We had 17 hits in all. Bo had three. Marcus, Vlad, Springer, and Lourdes had two hits each. Everyone on the starting lineup (other than Ryu) had a hit. And we had pinch hits from Breyvic Valera and Santiago Espinal (both hard-hit doubles).

Hyun Jin Ryu did not have a good night. He didn’t give up a run in the first four innings, but he was pitching into and out of trouble in all but one of those innings. Unfortunately, his luck ran out in the fifth.

He got the first out (Kevin Pillar) and then gave up five straight hits and three earned before being pulled from the game. Nothing was really crushed that inning. He was kind of BABIPed to death (maybe balancing out the luck he had with runners on base earlier in the game).

Trevor Richards came in with one-out and two-on and got two strikeouts to save Ryu’s ERA (and our blood pressure).

Our bullpen was terrific:

• Richards got the first out of the sixth, another strikeout.
• Tim Mayza got the last two outs of the sixth, with a strikeout of his own.
• Taylor Saucedo got the first two outs of the seventh and gave up a hit and a walk.
• Adam Cimber got the last out of the seventh and pitched the eighth without giving up a base runner.
• Rafael Dolis got the ninth inning (and it took forever). He gave up two hits but didn’t allow a run.

Teoscar had a bad moment on the bases. He was at third base, with a runner on first and no outs. Then, he didn't run home on a ground ball to third when the Mets turned a double play. As it turned out, it didn’t matter (, and since he hit two home runs, we can forgive him, but it was a strange moment. I have no idea what he was thinking.

It wasn’t a good start for Taijuan Walker against his old teammates. He went 4 innings (plus 3 batters), allowed 8 hits, 6 earned, 2 walks, 1 strikeout with 3 home runs. Three of those runs came in the fifth after it looked like Walker had a shoulder issue of some sort. He didn't look healthy. It seems like managerial malpractice to leave him in the game after that. I hope he doesn’t have to miss anytime.

And it was fun to see Kevin Pillar again (1 for 4). We saw many former Jays: Jonathan Villar, Miguel Castro, Brandon Drury, and Yennsy Diaz. I’m sure I’ve missed someone out.

Jays of the Day: Hernandez (.156 WPA), Springer (.109), and Richards (.093). Richards coming in and getting those two outs when it looked like the Mets were making a comeback was huge.

No Suckage Jays, McGuire had the low number at -.041 but deserved some credit for helping the pitchers work out of trouble in several spots.

We had 710 comments in the GameThread. Gids10UK led us to a much-needed victory. Great job, sir.