Jays Lose to Rangers

Rangers 12 Blue Jays 6

The dream of the perfect season is over.

This one started off great and then went wrong in a hurry.

We were up 6-1 after three innings, and things were great. I had the recap written in my head. And then came a 6-run Rangers 4th, 2 more in the 5th, and 3 in the seventh.

Let’s talk about the good stuff first:

We scored:

• 4 in the first: George Springer started us off with a home run. Then two-out singles from Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel were followed by Matt Chapman’s first home run as a Jay. 4-0.
• 1 in the second: Danny Jansen hit home run number 2 of the season. 5-1.
• 1 in the third: Vlad Guerrero hit a monster shot, 467 feet. We talked about how Vlad would wreck the big screen one day. 6-1, and life was good.

Through 3 innings, Hyun Jin Ryu looked excellent. He did give up a solo homer in the second, but he was sailing along.

Then came the fourth. It went walk, ground out, double, single (hit hard right through Bo Bichette, if he could have come up with it, things would have been different, but it was hit over 104 MPH), another single, and another, then a ground ball hit hard right into the back of Ryu’s leg. If it had missed him, it would have likely been an out. That was it for Ryu, but now it was 6-4, and the tying run was on base.

In comes Julian Merryweather. His second pitch was hit for a double, and the game was tied. After that, strikeout, single, strikeout and we were down 7-6.

Ross Stripling got the fifth. He handed out 3 walks and a hit, and we were down 9-6.

David Phelps threw a scoreless sixth. And got a strikeout and a walk in the seventh.

Tayler Saucedo gave up back-to-back home runs, making it 12-6 and pretty much ending all hope for a comeback.

Trent Thornton gave us a couple of scoreless innings to end things, with a couple of strikeouts.

And we only had 3 hits and a walk from the fourth inning on.

On the day, Springer, Chapman and Jansen each had two his, including a homer each. Vlad had a home and a walk.

And we had 0 for from Bichette and Espinal (who had 2 strikeouts).

In total, 10 hits and 6 runs. So it is hard to complain about the offense.

It almost looked like they would make some noise in the ninth. Raimel Tapia singled, and Cavan Biggio was hit by pitch in a pinch-hit spot. Jansen hit a deep fly to left, but it was caught. Springer and Bichette each struck out to end a rather dismal game.

The strike zone was like an accordion today, sometimes wide, sometimes narrow. There were a few arguments, and a couple of strikeouts at-bat moments hurt.

Jays of the Day: Chapman (.244 WPA). I’ll give an honourable mention to Vlad, George and Danny.

Suckage: Merryweather (-.247), Ryu (-.213), Stripling (-.178), and Tapia (-.121, 1 for 4, unfortunately for him, the hit game in the ninth after the game was decided).

I had visions of a 3-0 start, but 2-1 will do. The Jays head to New York to play the Yankees. Alek Manoah goes against Jameson Tallion.