Costly Bichette Error in Extra, Jays Lose

Blue Jays 1 Phillies 2 (10 innings)

Frustrating.....

I don’t know why we can’t score for Kevin Gausman. He seems like a good guy. You would think his teammates would like to help him out.

Today he went 6 innings, allowing 3 hits, 2 singles and a double, no walks and 9 strikeouts. And, of course, we only scored 1 run.

Amazingly, the one run came on a Brandon Belt home run.

Unfortunately, Jordan Romano gave up a run in the bottom of the ninth. Bryce Harper hit a hard single to center. Nick Castellanos hit a ground ball just on the shortstop side of the second. Espinal, playing second, got to the ball, but his rushed throw was wide of first (and likely late). Dan mentioned that he might have had an easier play at second, but either was very tough. Before that, Castellanos popped one up down the first base line that Vlad barely overran (overslid?). A very tough play, but he got far enough and missed it. Kyle Schwarber struck out. Then J.T. Realmuto doubled to left, and we had a tie game (with the winning run at third). Infield in, Alec Bohm ground one hard at first base, and Vlad made a terrific throw to the play, getting out. A ground ball followed an intentional walk to Brandon Marsh to third. Inning over, but the game is tied.

Being fair to Jordan, the strike zone had been huge all day and suddenly became small.

In extras:

Top of the tenth: Lukes pinch-running at second. Craig Kimbrel in.

Danny Jansen struck out. Santiago Espinal struck out. And Alejandro Kirk (pinch-hitting) ground out.

Bottom of the ninth: Edmundo Sosa on second. Tim Mayza in. Lots of defensive moves, Lukes stays in the game, playing right. We lose the DH (it won’t matter). Whit Merrifield moves to left from right. Daulton Varsho moves to center.

Mayza gets Bryson Stott on strikes (after he tried to bunt). Trea Turner walked (an ok moment, put the double play on). Bryce Harper ground one hard at Mayza. Tim makes a very nice play, turns and throws dead on to second (how often have you seen the pitcher throw that one away?), and Bo throws wide to first, winning run scores. It was an easy throw, but that’s easy to say from the couch. Bo’s first error in a month was a big one.

As much as it was a blown save for Romano, we have to score more than one run in ten innings. Jordan had some bad luck, a popup that was just out of reach of our fielders (where have I heard that one before) and a ground ball that was just into the wrong spot. A couple more feet toward’s third and Bo would have made the play going towards the bag at second and it would have been an easy double play. And if the strike zone had been the same as it had been earlier in the game, life would have been easier,

But, then, we don’t deserve to win if we only score one run.

Zach Wheeler was very good. 7 innings, 3 hits allowed, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

And we had trouble with three Phillies relievers. Gregory Soto, Seranthony Dominguez (presumably just back from being at Charles’ coronation), and Craig Kimbrel each had a scoreless inning.

Jays of the Day: Gausman (.377 WPA), Swanson (.142), Garcia (.108), and Belt (.116).

Other Award: Romano (-.299), Varsho (-.117), Chapman (-.117) and Kirk (-.104 for the one at bat). I’m giving one to Bo for the error. Mayza had the number too, but that was on Bo’s error.

Off day tomorrow.

I need supper, I will fix this later.