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Jays 1 Guardians 0
According to Dan Shulman, this was the first time in franchise history that the Jays followed an 0-1 loss with a 1-0 win. However, despite the typically anemic offense which has plagued Kevin Gausman’s starts all season, the Jays somehow managed to make a first inning home run stand up for the win.
Batting second, Springer battled with starter Logan Allen, fouling everything Allen could think to throw at him, before connecting on the 13th pitch of the at-bat up in the zone for a solo shot to left. That would be the sum total of the Jays scoring for the remainder of the day.
In the 3rd, Vladdy pounded a long single off the wall but Chapman’s drive to left just fell short of the wall and into the glove of Steven Kwan, for the start of what would be a re-occurring theme of hard hit balls to left that died in Kwan’s glove just short of runs.
What would turn out to be the key defensive play of the game was in the bottom of the first, which Merrifeld saved the tying run with a sliding catch, laying all out to rob extra bases. He’d do a similar sliding catch in the 3rd to keep things in the Jays favour. Logan Allen did a good job mixing pitches and keeping the Jays from capitalizing on opportunities
The Jays ran into some trouble in the 7th with a double, but a pretty pick off to get Gonzales by Kirk and Schneider ended the inning. The Jays came out firing on all cylinders, loading the bases with no one out in the 8th, but in familiar fashion, couldn’t push anything across after a shallow fly by Jansen and a difficult double play turned off of a Schneider ground ball. Kirk hit one deep in the 9th to die in Kwan’s glove.
The Guardians got a seeing eye single in the 9th off Mayza, but Hicks induced a shallow fly ball to Merrifeld to end the threat and secure the win.
Jays of the Day: Gausman (.493 WPA). Yet another incredible performance from Gausman.
The Other Award: Everyone other than Springer was the same range of ineffective at the plate
Tomorrow we have Manoah (3-8, 5.72) vs. Syndergaard (1-5, 6.75).
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