Jays lose to Rays

Blue Jays 1 Rays 7

Can’t win them all, though it would make life so much fun.

The Jays had a chance to get the game off to a good start. First inning, Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero took one-out walks. After a Bo Bichette strikeout, Teoscar Hernandez was hit by pitch. And then Lourdes flew out to deep right-field. A few more feet, it would have been a whole different game.

Julian Merryweather had to fight through the first inning as well, giving up a single and walk but got out of it.

But Ross Stripling, not living up to the ‘bulk’ title, just didn’t have it. He had a quick second inning but then the wheels fell right off in the third. He gave up 4 hits, including an Austin Meadows home run and 5 earned.

Tayler Saucedo came in with one out and gave up a double and an RBI ground ball. And then another run in the fourth.

Anthony Castro was more impressive, going 2.1 without allowing a base runner.

Ryan Borucki pitched a scoreless seventh.

Then, starting the eighth, Ryan plunked Kevin Kiermaier in the back. Clearly on purpose. I’m not a fan of throwing at a batter. But I’m old enough that I’m ok with showing some fire at the end of a bad game.

If Kiermaier hadn’t lied about not knowing it wasn’t his, I’d be less happy with hitting him. At least be a man and be honest. Don’t blow smoke. But I guess he felt he had to lie.

Anyway, Borucki was thrown out of the game (deservedly). Pete Walker went nuts, likely pouring out his frustration with some crappy umpiring this series.

Pearson came in and finished off the game without allowing any more runs (or hitting any other batters).

Yeah, that’s a lie too, but it is the lie they always say.

Offensively, we managed just 4 hits, and 4 walks. Vlad had half the hits and he scored our run on a Hernandez sac fly.

It was one of those games. We really should have scored some runs in the first.

No one had the number for a JoD. I’m giving Castro one for his good work.

Suckage: Stripling (-.301) and let’s give one to Gurriel (-.080) as a representative of an anemic offense. He could have helped out a lot with a hit in the first, with the bases loaded. Or in the eighth with two on.

Tomorrow we start a four-game series with the Twins. Steven Matz (13-7, 3.84) vs. Michael Pineda (7-8, 3.74). It is a 7:40 Eastern start time.

We had 465 comments in the GameThread. HeyBoyBlueisBack led us to a crushing defeat.

Again, I want to comment on the rush to say ‘game over’. Today, the game was 0-0 in the third inning and we were told the game is over. This isn’t the place for that.