Great Start by Manoah, but Jays Lose

Blue Jays 1 Mariners 2

The good news: Alek Manoah was amazing. One pitch cost him. In the seventh he gave up a ground ball single to J.P, Crawford and then a crushed home run by Carlos Santana.

In all he went 7.1, allowed just 3 hits, 4 walks (2 of those walks came in the eighth inning) and 7 strikeouts.

If we could score a bit, it would have been a great game.

Unfortunately, Robbie Ray was excellent himself. He went 6 innings, allowed just 3 hits, 2 walks, with 6 strikeouts. The only run against him was a George Springer home run.

We had a shot to blow it open in the fifth. The inning started with back-to-back walks to Alejandro Kirk and Teoscar Hernandez. Lourdes Gurriel singled to load the bases with no outs. But:

• Matt Chapman struck out. He really needed to make contact. He did get a close call go against him that could have made the count 3-1 but instead evened it at 2-2.
• Santiago Espinal also struck out. He got royally ripped off on a pitch off the plate. He should have been up 2-0, instead it was 1-1 and then he had to swing at the next pitch off the plate.
• And Raimel Tapia ground out.

In a tight game like this one, you get the bases loaded with no outs, you need to score some. We didn’t.

Other than that inning Ray was in charge.

Amazingly Mariners relievers Matt Brash (Lourdes fouled off nine 2-strike pitches before striking out) and Andres Munoz threw even hard than Ray and each had perfect innings with 2 strikeouts each.

We had another shot in the 9th. After Bo popped out on the first pitch. Vlad and Kirk both singled. Teoscar Hernandez ground out. Surprisingly to me, the Mariners intentionally walked Lourdes Gurriel to pitch to Matt Chapman with the bases loaded.

But Chapman, after taking a strike above the zone, ground out.

The Jays were 1 for 6 with RISP.

Jays of the Day? I’m giving one to Manoah though his number wasn’t good (-.109 WPA). Also Kirk (.125), Springer (.109) and Gurriel (.102).

Suckage: Chapman (-.344, 0 for 4, 3 k), Espinal (-.169, 0 for 4), Tapia (-.143, 0 for 3, 2 k), Bichette (-.121, 0 for 4, 2 k).

Tomorrow is a day game. 4:00 Eastern. It will be a bullpen day for the Jays. Logan Gilbert (10-3, 2.61) for the Mariners.