Jays finish sweep of A’s

A’s 0 Blue Jays 8

A sweep! That felt so good.

I’m not telling you anything new, but Robbie Ray is terrific. Today, 6.2 innings, just 1 hit, 3 walks (a high number for him this year), and 10 strikeouts. They let him wear the ‘home run’ jacket when he came out of the game, well earned.

And the bats have returned from their August nap. We had 13 hits today, with two home runs. Marcus Semien hit his 35th and Alejandro Kirk his 5th.

Bo Bichette when 4 for 4, with a double, nice to see him making good contact again. Vlad and Kirk had 3 hits each (Kirk was short a triple for the cycle, but I have a hard time imagining the series of events that would allow him to get a triple). Lourdes Gurriel had a 2-run triple (with A’s right fielder Chad Pinder running into the outfield wall, hard. We really need a real warning track).

Springer. Hernandez (with 3 strikeouts) and Valera had 0 fors.

We were still just 3 for 15 with RISP but when those ‘3’ include a homer and a triple, we are ok with it.

Randal Grichuk made a super catch in center field, in the first inning. One of the best catches you’ll ever see. Brayvic Valera made a nice throw from third today too.

The bullpen did the job too.

• Trever Richards got the last out of the seventh. Ray was up to 107 pitches, plus it was nice that he could walk off the field to a standing ovation.
• Bryan Baker pitched a scoreless eighth. He gave up a leadoff single and threw 2 wild pitches, but got out of it.
• Nate Pearson struck out the side in the ninth (I’d be happy if that was a regular thing), on just 14 pitches.

Jays of the Day: Ray (.177 WPA), Gurriel (.182), and Kirk (.103, 3 for 4, plus a nice job behind the plate).

No Suckage Jays. Teoscar had the low number at -.055.

Tomorrow is another 1:00 start, from Yankees stadium.

We had 290 comments in the GameThread. Mccune led us to a nice drama-free victory.