Tapia Homers, Jays Beat Red Sox

Blue Jays 6 Red Sox 1

Sometimes you get lucky. I played squash tonight, but I only missed one of the 7 runs of the game.

Jose Berrios didn’t have a good first inning. Everything was hit hard, but he only allowed 1 run. I was a magic act. But then he went on to pitch 6 innings, allowing 8 hits, 1 walk, 1 earned, with 6 strikeouts. Three of the hits came in that first inning. In the first inning, Red Sox batters hit balls 107.8, 109.2, 105.7 and 108.7 MPH. But they only added up to 1 run.

And our bullpen only allowed 2 baserunners over the last three innings, both hits off Tim Mayza (I thought the one that was hit in front of right fielder Raimel Tapia should have been cast). Trevor Richards got four outs with 2 strikeouts. Julian Merryweather pitched a quick 9th, getting a strikeout. This was our first win of the season without Jordan Romano getting a save. He must feel left out.

The Red Sox copied the Jays by not hitting with RISP, going 1 for 14.

Offensively, 5 of our 6 runs came in the second inning:

• Matt Chapman led off with a single.
• Tapia hit his first home run as a Blue Jay. Estimated at 404 feet to the short right-field corner. I’m very happy for Tapia.
• Santiago Espinal walked.
• Alejandro Kirk walks.
• Cavan Biggio singled to load the bases.
• George Springer hit a sac fly. Amazingly, Kirk moved up from second to third on it.
• Bo singled home two.
• Vlad walked.
• Lourdes ground into a force at third. Red Sox 3B, Rafael Devers made a mistake. He saw Bo running at him from second base and went to tag him. Bo slowed and made it so they couldn’t get a double play. Devers should have thrown to second and gotten the easy double play.
• But Chapman popped out to end the inning.

We got one more run in the seventh:

Lourdes led off with a single. An out later, Tapia reached on a wild pitch on strike three. And Espinal hit a sac fly.

We had 9 hits and 5 walks. Lourdes and Kirk had 2 hits each. Vlad was walked 3 times.

The big news was that George Springer left the game after being hit in the forearm with a pitch. The Jays say x-rays were negative (which is positive). I’d imagine he’ll sit tomorrow.

Jays of the Day: Tapia (.154 WPA), and Berrios (.143).

No Suckage Jays.

The Jays are now 7-5, still in first place in the AL East. Tomorrow, they play an afternoon game in Boston (1:30 Eastern). Kevin Gausman (4.22 ERA) vs. Tanner Houck (3.00). Houch will not be joining the Red Sox on the trip to Toronto as he knows more than all the doctors on the planet and isn’t vaccinated.

I’m going to be missing the next couple of games. Real-life gets in the way of baseball again.