Jays lose to Orioles

Blue Jays 5 Orioles 7

I was laughing at the Astros for losing three to the Orioles. I’m not laughing now.

It was one of those games.

Steven Matz, making his second start after missing time with Covid, wasn’t good. He went 4 innings, allowed 6 hits, 2 home runs, 4 runs, 3 earned, no walks, and 4 strikeouts. He wasn’t helped out by his defense.

In the first inning, Austin Hays lined one over Lourdes Gurriel in left. Gurriel is never good going back on fly balls, but then he throws well wide of second base when all he had to do was hit the cutoff man. Hays saw the throw was offline and took second. Not listed as an error, but it was. Matz stranded Hays.

Leading off the fifth inning, Domingo Leyba hit a routine grounder to Bo Bichette at short, but Bo threw high to first. Vlad jumped and caught the ball, but was still in the air when Leyba crossed the bag. Next batter, Cedric Mullins goes deep, putting the O’s up 4-1.

It just went downhill fast from there.

Trent Thornton came in and got a strikeout. Then single, double, wild pitch, and home run. Suddenly we were down 7-1.

Tayler Saucedo came in a gave up a walk and single before finally getting out of the inning.

Jacob Barnes got 5 outs, and Anthony Castro got the last 3 outs.

We didn’t do much on offense either. 8 hits. Gurriel had 3, including the ninth-inning home run and Grichuk had two, who also homered.

We scored:

• One in the first: Marcus Semien started the game with a walk and Bo singled. Vlad lined one to left that Austin Hays made a very good catch one, which scored Semien. A couple of feet higher and that’s a two-run double.
• One in the seventh: Randal Grichuk hit his 16th home run. If he could get on a hot streak again, I’d be a happy camper.
• One in the eighth: Vlad hit his 28th of the year, to straightaway center.
• Two in the ninth: Randal singled and Gurriel homered.

Jays of the Day: Lourdes had the high mark at .075 WPA. If it wasn’t for the misplay in left I might give him it, but no.

Suckage: Matz (-.214), Thornton (-.091), and Reese (-.101, 0 for 4, plus letting the wild pitch bounce away from him). His little hot streak seems to have petered out. He is 1 for 15 in his last four games.

Tomorrow night Ryu goes up against Spencer Watkins, making his second start of the season.

We had 375 comments in the GameThread. I led us to defeat.