Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 6 (10 innings)

This team is something else.

What an incredible bottom of the ninth. Raimel Tapia started things off by slicing a double down the left-field line (against lefty pitcher Jake Diekman nonetheless). Santiago Espinal followed with a double down the right-field line. Then, pinch-hitter Lourdes Gurriel and Bradley Zimmer both struck out, getting Tom to hurry up on the writing of the recap. But George Springer followed with a home run to center field. 110.0 MPH (he had a 110 MPH single earlier in the game), 423 feet.

Clutch is overused, but that was clutch. Bo Bichette ground out to end the inning, but he won yesterday’s game, so he’s allowed.

Kevin Gausman deserved better. He went 6 innings, allowed just 4 hits (3 singles and a double), once again no walks, with 9 strikeouts. He gave up an unearned run in the fourth. Xander Bogaerts started the inning with a double, stole second and went to third on a bad throw from catcher Zack Davis. An Enrique Hernandez sac fly scored him.

But Gausman was dominant all night. He did give up a single in the sixth and got out of the inning on a hard line drive caught by “first baseman” Gosucke Katoh. Heck of a catch on a 99.4 MPH line drive.

Trevor Richards pitched a quick seventh inning with 2 strikeouts.

Unfortunately, Yimi Garcia wasn’t good. Starting the eighth, he gave up single, single, double, sac fly, double, and he was out of the game. David Phelps came and got the last two outs of the inning, but we went from a 2-1 lead to training by 5-2 in a hurry.

Ryan Borucki gave out a couple of walks in the ninth and got a couple of strikeouts.

In the tenth, with the Manfred Man at second, Charlie went with Jordan Romano. A ground ball moved the runner to third. Then Bogaerts ground one hard (102 MPH) right back at Romano. It hit him, but he made the play at first. He kept his head, checked the runner at third, and made the throw to first. A strikeout of J.D. Martinez (on a bunch of high fastballs) got him out of the inning without the Manfred Man scoring.

In our half of the tenth, with Bo Bichette playing Manfred Man (can’t complain about having his speed at second), the Red Sox intentionally walked Vlad (the obvious move). Then Alejandro Kirk (our third catcher in today’s game) took a seven-pitch walk. Just a terrific at-bat to load the bases.

Matt Chapman is up with the bases loaded and no outs. He’s got to make contact. He didn’t. Strikeout on 5 pitches. Tapia, up next, got the Red Sox to bring in a lefty pitcher. The Red Sox went with a five-man infield. Tapia went to two strikes quickly. Fouled off another. Took a ball high. Fouled another off. And another. A ball. Yet another foul.

And then a fly ball to left field, plenty deep enough to score Bo.

JAYS WIN!

We had 8 hits. Springer had 2, including the big home run. Espinal had 3, including the big double in the ninth. Tapia was 1 for 4, but the 1 was a double in the ninth, and then that sac fly in the tenth was just what we needed.

Jays of the Day: Springer (.524 WPA), Romano (.308), Espinal (.301), Gausman (.230), Kirk (.136, 2 great PA), Tapia (.146, should be higher) and Trevor Richards (.094).

Suckage: Garcia (-.634), Chapman (-.218, 0 for 5, 3 strikeouts, and that last one was terrible, he had to make contact), Katoh (-.122) and Zimmer (-.094).

The Jays are now 12-6 (and I’m still thinking the offense hasn’t shown up this season). Tomorrow Ross Stripling gets the start. Michael Wacha starts for the Red Sox. Could we please have a blowout (by the Jays).