Jays win in their Coming Home game

Royals 4 Blue Jays 6

That was great. Undefeated in Canada.

I mean, I thought there were too many videos before the game. I get it. We are happy they are home. But I could have been just as glad they were back with one video.

But the smiles on the players’ faces were great to see. I hope they can have a good night’s sleep now. It was emotional. There were tears in a lot of player’s (and fans’) eyes. They showed Charlie Montoyo tearing up. I did love seeing the big flag. And the Toronto Gay Men’s choir did a beautiful job on the Nationa Anthems.

Anyway, the game:

Ross Stripling went 5.1 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. He gave up a home run on his last pitch of the game.

I thought he was getting fortunate. There were a lot of hard-hit balls, but they found gloves. So he wasn’t missing many bats. For that matter, he wasn’t missing many barrels, but I guess the fielders wear gloves for a reason. We got some nice plays from Teoscar Hernandez in left and Santiago Espinal at third. Vlad made some nice plays too.

Tim Mayza got five outs without allowing a base runner.

Brad Hand made his first appearance for the Jays. He had some troubles, giving up a couple of hits. The run scored against him was unearned, but it was partly his fault. With a runner on first, a ground ball to the hole to Bo Bichette’s right. Bo should have held on to the ball, but he tried to make a very tough throw. He missed first by 10 to 15 feet. That would have been all ok, but Reese McGuire (like he should) followed the batter to first, but Hand forgot his job was to cover home. So the runner from first went all the way home.

Hand got out of the inning without any more damage.

Jordan Romano got his 9th save of the year. It wasn’t a nice easy save. He gave up a single to Hunter Dozier. A steal, a strikeout, and a wild pitch later, Michael Taylor hit a ground ball to Vlad at first. Vlad’s throw to Romano wasn’t perfect. Jordan did a neat little slide into first. The batter was called safe, but it was overturned on replay. Great job by Romano.

The next batter pops one up just over the infield. Santigo Espinal chased it and made a bare-handed over-the-shoulder catch. Just a fantastic play.

On offense, we did enough. 10 hits, 6 runs. George Springer had 3 hits. Bo had 2, including a big home run. Everyone in the starting lineup, except Marcus Semien, reached base.

We scored:

• Two in the second: Teoscar led off with a 441 foot home run to left. Just crushed. Randal Grichuk and Alejandro Kirk walked. Springer drove Randal in with a double.
• One in the third: Bo singled and stole second (after I said he wouldn’t try against Sal Perez)
• Three in the seventh: Kirk led off with a single. Breyvic Valera pinch ran (good call, Charlie). Springer doubled him to third. Vlad walked (sort of pitched around). Marcus hit into a double play that scored Valera, but it was a letdown. We thought we thought our big inning slipped away. But Bo saved up, hitting an opposite-field two-run homer.

It was a great way to come back to Toronto.

Jays of the Day: Mayza (.144 WPA), Stripling (.106, yeah, I think there was a ton of luck, but let's give it to him), Springer (.167 for a 3 for 4, 2 doubles). I’ll give honorable mention to Bo and Teoscar. And let's give an honorable mention to Espinal, too, excellent defense tonight. That last catch alone.

I’d give a Suckage to Semien (-.089), but I love them all today, so he gets off the hook.

Tomorrow’s game is a 3:00 start.

We had 789 comments in the GameThread. I led us to Victory.

This isn’t a hard team to love: