Jays Beat Rangers Again

Rangers 3 Blue Jays 4

A much different game than yesterday’s, though this one also had a big RBI double by Santiago Espina (almost precisely the same as yesterday’s double). Not the excitement, but a win is always a good thing.

We got a decent start from Kevin Gausman (at least in comparison to yesterday’s Berrios start). He got through the first two innings without allowing a baserunner.

But the third inning didn’t go well. It went single (plus error on Teoscar Hernandez, showing a lack of urgency on the play), single, RBI double (our old friend Semien), RBI ground out, RBI single, strikeout, single and, thankfully, fly out.

Gausman followed that up with two quick innings. In all 5 innings, 8 hits, 3 earned, no walks and 5 strikeouts. Not outstanding, but considering yesterday’s start, not bad.

And then the bullpen was great, an inning each for:

• Trevor Richards: 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 strikeout. He gets the win.
• Yimi Garcia: Clean inning.
• Tim Mayza: Clean inning.
• Jordan Romano: Clean inning for his second save of the year. One of the outs was a nice leaping catch by Bo, shifted to the first base side of second. Next year we won’t get to see things like that. Stupid MLB.

We did get some good defence. Bo made a couple of nice plays. Biggio made a great grab on a liner. And Vlad made a terrific tag at first, on a throw that was off line.

And the offense did enough. The top three of the order had 2 hits each, Springer, Bichette and Guerrero (and scored 3 of our 4 runs). And Kirk had 2 hits as well. Matt Chapman walked twice, and Teoscar was hit by pitch twice.

We scored:

• 2 in the first: George, Bo and Vlad all singled, Vlad getting an RBI. And Lourdes drove in the other run on a ground out.
• 1 in the fifth: Bo Bichette’s first home run of the season, tying the game.
• 1 in the sixth: Kirk singled, Raimel Tapia replaced him at first with a force ground out at second, which turned out to be big, and Espinal doubled. Tapia flew home. Kirk may have made third on the same hit.

It would have been ok, to have a few insurance runs, but I won’t complain about a win.

Jays of the Day: Romano (.177 WPA), Espinal (.155, for the double, also made a nice play at second in the eighth), Bo (.153, plus good defense), Mayza (.128) and Garcia (.101).

No Suckage Jays. Tapia had the number (-.100), but part of that was for a sac bunt, and he didn’t get any credit for making it home from first.

The Jays are 2-0 with Hyu Jin Ryu starting tomorrow. MLB.com lists TBD for the Rangers starter.