Jays get a win in Tropicana Field (but still, burn it to the ground)

Blue Jays 4 Rays 2

It wasn’t Alek Manoah’s best start of the season, but he fought through 6 innings allowing just 2 runs. He gave up 5 hits and 6 walks.

Alek hadn’t allowed more than 3 walks in any of his starts before this. Being fair to Alek, Joe West’s strike zone seemed to be shifted over away from the batter. Alek couldn’t get a call on the inside part of the plate, but the outside corner was three or four inches off the plate.

I’ve said it before, but pitchers who fight through things when they don’t have their best stuff impress me. Alek only had one 3 up 3 down inning in his 6.

Our offense wasn’t hitting on all cylinders. We had 8 hits and 2 walks, but we were just 1 for 9 with RISP. We scored:

• One in the third: Lourdes Gurriel and Corey Dickerson started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Lourdes scored on a Breyvic Valera ground out.
• One in the fifth: Gurriel hit his 21st home run of the season.
• One in the sixth: Marcus Semien led off with a walk, and he went to third on Vladimir Guerreros’s single. Vlad was very heads up and went to second on the throw to throw. Great base running by both. A Bo Bichette sac fly got our run in.
• One in the eighth: George Springer singled, two outs later Bo singled. Then Teoscar Hernandez singled, and Springer hustled home.

We really should have scored more. Vlad and Lourdes had two hits each. Kirk, Semien, and Valera went hitless.

Tim Mayza pitched a nice quick seventh.

Trevor Richards handed out a couple of walks (again, the West strike zone came into play a bit) but got out of the inning. He didn’t look sharp at all.

Jordan Romano got the ninth. He got two strikeouts and then gave up two three walks (again, West helped, but his strike zone was what it was all game long). But he got Joey Wendle to pop out to right (after a line drive down the right-field line that was foul by six feet).

Our Jays walked 11 today. How you can walk 11 and only allow two runs is a fantastic thing.

Jays of the Day: Mayza (.105 WPA), Vlad (.194), Lourdes (.161), and Dickerson (.105).

Suckage: Semien (-.124, 0 for 3, walk), and Kirk (-.110).

Tomorrow we have TBD vs. TBD. It was to be Wacha for the Rays, but he pitched tonight. And Ross Stripling will likely be either starter or bulk guy for the Jays.

It is a 3:00 Eastern start, ruining my plan to go to the gym in the afternoon.

We had 993 comments in the game. And only a few of them about old songs that no one in their right mind would remember. It made me miss Hugo. DangYouToHeck led us to victory. Good job, sir.

We need more music around here: