Jays Hit 3 Home Runs, But Still Lose

Jays 8 Mariners 9

I’m not going to recap that mess.

We did score eight runs, and anytime we score eight, we should win.

We got home runs from Kiermaier, Belt, and Guerrero.

Alejandro Kirk went 4 for 5. Vlad (home run and double), Chapman and Biggio had 2 hits. The only 0 for was Bo Bichette, who is hitless in his last 3 games, the first time he’s gone 3 games without a hit this season.

We had 14 hits, a 2-run lead and then a 3-run lead, and yet we lost.

There was an effort in the ninth: Chapman singled, and an out later, Kirk singled (his 4th of the day. Biggio singled to make it a one-run game, with the tying run at third. But Kiermaier hit a soft fly out to shallow center. Not deep enough to score Merrifield (though maybe we should have tried. Julio Rodriguez’s throw was well up the third baseline, it would have been closer than it should have been. And then Springer ground one up the middle, which was the game.

Kevin Gausman wasn’t his usual self. He gave up 4 home runs for the first time in his career. But they were 4 solo homers (on 5 hits). He had no walks with 9 strikeouts. 4 earned on 6 innings isn’t good, but it should have been enough for a W.

He came out of the game at 87 pitches. I didn’t think they would let him get to 90 after missing the last three weeks.

But using all the leverage guys yesterday hurt us today:

• Nate Pearson had a really rough time. 3 hits and a hit batter, 4 earned runs, 1 scored after he left the game. Pearson was throwing too many breaking balls. I don’t know why we saw so many curves.
• Yimi Garcia, after pitching yesterday, gave up a hit, an earned run, and allowed an inherited run to score while getting two outs.
• Jay Jackson pitched a quick 8th inning, but barn door and horses....

Jays of the Day: Kirk (.247 WPA), Biggio (.241), Belt (.240) and Vlad (.116).

The Other Award: Pearson (-.516, really didn’t have it today), Garcia (-.259), Springer (-.206, mainly on the ground out to end the game), Kiermaier (-.169, if only that fly ball was 20 feet deeper), and Bichette (-.164).

Tomorrow we end this series from Hell. Alek Manoah (2-8, 6.18, and needs to go deep) vs. Bryan Woo (1-2, 4.74).