Jays Beat Marlins

I thought I posted this earlier....I guess I didn’t.

Jays 6 Marlins 3

I said that the bottom of the batting order looked pretty terrible today, but they showed me.

In the second inning, the bottom got us five runs:

• Matt Chapman started things off with a double.
• Cavan Biggio doubled him home.
• Santiago Espinal followed with a single.
• Kevin Kiermaier showed bunt, then singled home Biggio.
• Tyler Heineman struck out, missing three attempts. Pissed me off. Four hits in a row, and we give them a free out. Heineman did not look good trying to bunt (his next time up, he lined a hard single). I dislike bunts, but I hate bunting with two strikes. Tyler showed he wasn’t comfortable bunting, and then you have him strike out on the bunt. Oh well.
• George Springer singled home two.
• Whit Merrifield singled home Springer.
• But then Brandon Belt struck out, and Vlad ground out.

That was all the scoring we’d get until Chapman crushed a home run in the eighth. 111.9 mph, 415 feet.

We had 11 hits on the day. Vlad was the only 0 for. Springer, Chapman, and Biggio had two hits each.

Kevin Gausman wasn’t as sharp as usual, but we scored him more runs than usual. He gave up 8 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk, with 6 strikeouts.

Erik Swanson saved him from having more earned runs. In the sixth, Kevin started the inning, allowing a single, hit batter and single to score a run.

Swanson came in and got a double play (off .398 hitter Luis Arraez) and a ground out from Jorge Soler.

Trevor Richards (available because we have two off days in the next five days, so he isn’t needed to start) pitched a 3-up 3-down eighth.

Jordan Romano gave up a couple of baserunners (a single and a walk, I thought Fortes swung at the full-count pitch on the walk, but the first base umpire disagreed), but a strikeout and a ground out got his 22nd save.

Gausman could have been saved an earned run if Whit Merrifield had made a catch on Garrett Cooper’s long fly ball in the fourth. Runners on second and third. A fly ball to the track. Merrifield got there but had the ball go off his glove. It wasn’t an easy catch, but he got there. He might as well catch it.

Bo Bichette missed the game with a sore thumb. They say he’ll be back Friday but we shall see.

Jays of the Day: Swanson (.251 WPA), Chapman (.128) and Biggio (.102).

The Other Award: Gausman (-.129). Hardly fair, really, but he was saved by Swanson. Luckily, the team decided to score for him today.

That’s two wins in a row since we were told that John Schneider would be fired.