Jays Beat Angels

Jays 6 Angels 3

This is going to be a quick, late recap. Tom may have had a couple of beers tonight.

This was like a free game for the Blue Jays. Facing Shohei Ohtani, we didn’t expect a win. And if he shut us out, we would have thought ‘yeah, he’s a very good pitcher, I didn’t expect we’d score a bunch’.

But we did score a bunch. Ohtani went 6 innings, allowed 5 earned, 2 home runs. He did get 10 strikeouts, but we did pretty good.

George Springer started the game with a home run.

Vladimir Guerrero hit a home run in the sixth (also a solo homer).

And Danny Jansen homered again, not off Ohtani, in the ninth inning.

Santiago Espinal drove in a run without hitting a home run. And Bo Bichette drove in 2 with a double.

We only had 7 hits, but when 3 are home runs, 7 can be enough. Springer and Bichette were the only Jays with 2 hits.

Cavan Biggio didn’t get a hit in his first game back but did take a walk.

Hyun Jin Ryu had a nice start. 5 innings, 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and 1 strikeout. He came out after 5 with elbow tightness, but he did a good job.

We got a scoreless inning of work out of three relievers: David Phelps, Yimi Garcia, and Adam Cimber.

Jordan Romano gave up an unearned run in the ninth, a run helped along by Romano’s own error.

Jays of the Day: Bichette (.138 WPA), Springer (.114) and Ryu (.114).

No one had the suckage number. The low mark was Chapman at -.051.

The Jays almost gave up another run. In the sixth inning, with 1 out and runners on the corners, Jared Walsh ground a ball to Cavan Biggio at first base. Cavan touched first and threw to second for the tag out. The runner from third seemed to score at about exactly the same time as the runner from third crossed the plate. It was very close, but the Angels lost the challenge. Very nice play by Cavan.

The Jays have scored 14 runs over the past two games. That’s more than they scored in most weeks this season. I’m not thinking the ‘slump’ is over, but I’m hopeful.