A typical Tropicana game, Jays lose

Blue Jays 1 Rays 7

One of those games where we couldn’t get a hit when we needed one, and we seemed to get unlucky on BABIP on the defensive side.

The Jays had the bases loaded in the first and didn’t score. Three reached base in the third, but they got just one run. And, in the fourth, Cavan Biggio got on, stole second but was stranded there.

Rays starter Shane McClanahan threw 91 pitches over four innings and yet allowed just one run.

After that, the Rays bullpen was great.

On the flip side, Alek Manoah didn’t seem to get any luck.

In the third inning, Manoah hit Mike Zunino with a pitch. One of those ‘hit by pitch’ which shouldn’t be, he kind of swung his hands and bat into the way of the ball. It really went off the knob of the bat but likely got his hand, too—a very iffy hit by pitch. Brett Phillips followed with a ground-rule double. After a strikeout, Ji-Man Choi. Another strikeout, then a soft liner between the infield and the outfield, scores two. Alek struck out the side, but two runs score in there.

In the fourth. Taylor Walls had a one-out double. Zunino ground one that went through Biggio for an error. A strikeout and a walk loaded the bases again. And another hit batter brought in the third run against Manoah, which ended his night.

And our bullpen gave up four more runs:

• Taylor Saucedo got four outs, giving up just a walk.
• Anthony Castro gave up two runs, getting just one out. He wasn’t helped by Teoscar Hernandez catching a medium fly out in left so nonchalantly (that’s a word, right?) that Zunino, the catcher, tagged up from second to third (with the runner on first moving up too, because of the poor throw to third). A single scored both runners, where, if Zunino was still on second, he likely wouldn’t have scored from there on the same single.
• Jacob Barnes got the last two outs of the sixth but gave up a single, walk, and two-run double to start the seventh.
• Rafael Dolis got the three outs of the seventh in, for him, a relative hurry. Strikeout, flyout, strikeout.
• Adam Cimber pitched a clean eighth.

We managed just five hits on offense, and just one of them came after the fourth inning. After the first fourth inning, our next baserunner didn’t come until one out in the ninth.

One of those games that makes you think the All-Star break can’t come fast enough.

The Jays weren’t sharp on defense, didn’t swing the bats well, and didn’t pitch great. Your usual Tropicana game. I can’t wait for them to blow that place up.

Jay of the Day: Springer (.133 WPA) had the number for a 1 for 3, plus a walk.

Suckage: Manoah (-.217), Castro (-.107), Grichuk (-.139, his first two at-bats came with the bases loaded, he could have made it a different game) and Semien (-.092).

Reese McGuire doesn’t seem to be the best at framing pitches. And now that he isn’t hitting, I don’t see the point in having him on the roster. Bring up Kirk and lets see what he can do.

Tomorrow we have a 1:00 Eastern start—Ross Stripling (4.06 ERA) vs. Ryan Yarbrough (4.34 ERA).

We had 402 comments in the GameThread. EMK19 led us to bitter defeat. I missed the first couple of innings, we went to see Black Widow, and I think it was a good choice. Much better than this game.