Great start from Berrios, Jays win

Blue Jays 2 Tigers 1

Once again, we got to witness a terrific start from a Jays starter.

Jose Berrios, off a couple of poor starts in a row, was back to being the guy we wanted in the trade. 7 innings, 6 hits, 1 run against (unearned, a Kevin Smith error helped the Tigers score), no walks, and 11 strikeouts. I’m going to have to go look to see how many times we’ve had a pitcher go 5+ innings without a walk this season. It seems to be happening every day lately.

I was royally pissed off when, at the start sixth inning, the umpires called a rain delay and had the tarp come out, for a 2 to 3-minute rainstorm. It didn’t look like it was raining hard. It seemed that the delay was just to ‘ice’ Berrios. Apparently, it was a 27-minute delay for maybe 3 minutes of, not all that heavy, rain. Phil Cuzzi isn’t the best of umpires, he says as politely as he can.

Pete Walker and Charlie Montoyo had a, rather heated, conversation with the umpires. I’m slightly surprised that Walker didn’t get thrown out.

It didn’t seem to affect Berrios too much, though Buck mentioned that he threw more balls in the fifth inning than he had in the first four innings. I should check that, but, he did throw a lot of pitches in the fifth. And, he likely would have been able to go deeper into the game (not that 7 innings is anything to complain about).

As well as the Smith error (a pretty tough error, considering some of the plays not called an error), contributing to the one run against for Berrios, Robbie Grossman hit a line drive down the first baseline that Vlad got a glove on but couldn’t catch. I watched the play several times, and I’m convinced that it hit Vlad’s glove in foul ground. To be fair, the umpire was trying to get out of the way and make the ball. But I’m sure Vlad’s glove was on the foul side of the line. Grossman thought so too, he didn’t run from the plate until seeing it was called fair. Vlad thought it was foul too.

Foul calls before the bags aren’t reviewable.

Jose threw 97 pitches, 74 strikes (10 of the 23 balls came in the sixth). Having to throw to keep warm during the ‘delay’ likely cost him an inning.

Adam Cimber got the first two batters of the eighth, before giving up a single, and Tim Mayza got the third out.

Mayza stayed in for the ninth, getting his first save of the season.

Offensively? Oh just cut and paste from the recaps of any game of the last two weeks.

We got a few hits, 10. But then 0 for 10 with RISP.

We scored on two solo home runs. Bo Bichette, in the first inning. And Kevin Smith (his first MLB home run) in the sixth.

As always should have scored more:

• After the home run in the first, we got two out but didn’t score them.
• The first two batters got on in the third but d.s.t. (yes, let’s go with shorthand).
• Two walks in the fourth but d.s.t.
• Bases loaded, no outs in the seventh but...you know. Almost impossible to believe.
• Eighth? Two singles....
• Ninth, once again two reached. Bo led off with a walk, got to second on Vlad’s ground out. Then Teoscar had what must have been his hardest-hit ball in 2 weeks, right at the third baseman, Bo started off from second figuring it would make it through. Out in a run down. Alejandro Kirk followed with a single, that would have scored Bo.

Bo had 3 hits. Vlad 2. Teoscar (0 for 5, 1 k) and Randal (0 for 4, 1 k) were held hitless.

At some point we are bound to get a hit with RISP, right? A broken-bat single? A swinging bunt?

Jays of the Day: Berrios (.369 WPA), Mayza (.285), Bichette (.214), and Smith (.111).

Suckage: Teoscar (-.209) and Kirk (-.149). Kirk’s is hardly fair, 1 for 3 with 2 walks? But he hit into a double with the bases loaded in the seventh. It was a very big moment.

Tomorrow the Jays head home to start a series with the Orioles.

We had 364 comments in the GameThread. I led us to victory.

When we didn’t score with the bases loaded in the seventh, watching the Blue Jays reminded me of this Bugs Bunny bit. Shoot me again: