04-01-19 BAL vs TOR

The Canadian Press

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
BAL	4	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	6	6	0
TOR	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	5	6	1

Box Score

TOR		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA		BAL		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
RF	McKinney	3	0	0	0	1	0	.200		CF	Mullins	4	1	0	0	0	2	.111
3B	Drury	4	1	1	0	0	1	.238		LF	Smith Jr.	5	1	1	0	0	0	.375
1B	Smoak	3	1	0	0	1	2	.167		2B	Villar	4	1	2	2	0	2	.294
CF	Grichuk	4	2	2	2	0	1	.125		RF	Mancini	3	2	2	2	0	0	.500
DH	Tellez	3	0	1	0	0	0	.286		RF	Rickard	0	0	0	0	0	0	.100
DH	Pillar	0	0	0	1	0	0	.063		3B	Ruiz, R	4	1	1	0	0	1	.200
LF	Hernández, T	4	0	1	1	0	1	.158		DH	Núñez, R	3	0	0	0	1	1	.167
2B	Gurriel Jr.	4	0	0	0	0	3	.000		1B	Davis, C	3	0	0	1	1	2	.000
C	Jansen	3	0	0	0	0	0	.133		C	Sucre	4	0	0	0	0	2	.250
SS	Galvis	3	1	1	1	0	2	.357		SS	Martin, R	2	0	0	0	1	2	.083

TOR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA		BAL	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Reid-Foley	2.0	4	5	3	2	3	52-32	13.50		Hess	6.1	0	0	0	1	8	82-50	0.00
Pannone	4.0	1	0	0	1	5	69-45	1.80		Araujo	0.2	2	2	2	1	0	14-6	27.00
Gaviglio	3.0	1	1	1	0	4	35-24	2.25		Wright	1.0	2	2	2	0	1	15-13	6.75
									Bleier	1.0	2	1	1	0	1	15-11	20.25

The bullpen was exceptional tonight, allowing one run over 7.0 innings. Of course, the reason they had to pitch 7.0 innings was because the Jays found themselves in a deep hole early on. Could the offense dig its way out? Well, they gave it a shot.

The thing about Sean Reid-Foley is that he reminds me an awful lot of a young Aaron Sanchez. Maybe I’m just being optimistic in that comparison. But there’s something about him that screams “electric stuff with no command but holy smokes if he could ever harness it.” He didn’t harness it tonight. Reid-Foley’s line was 2.0 IP, 5R/3ER, 4H, 2BB; 3K. You can throw in a couple of hit batters and a wild pitch which led to an unearned run for good measure. He also walked Chris Davis with the bases loaded. Sigh.

It was an ugly two innings for Reid-Foley. But it was only two innings. He’ll get more chances this year. Still lots of time to improve.

The good news was that Thomas Pannone was up to the challenge of piggy-backing that awful start. He came in and effectively shut down the Orioles. Pannone pitched 4.0 innings, while allowing only one hit and one walk, with five strikeouts mixed in there. Admittedly, I don’t have much confidence in him as a starter, and expect him to eventually become a left-handed specialist in the bullpen. But if he can build on tonight’s performance, then the Jays might have something with him. Who knows. Maybe I’m too low on Pannone and too high on Reid-Foley. Let’s just have one of them work out.

In four games this season, the pitcher who has pitched the most innings in the game for the Jays has yet to allow a single run. This is a 28-inning streak.

The Jays’ offense had a horrible start, before coming to life in the late innings. They showed terrible discipline at the plate, they weren’t taking any pitches, and they were swinging at everything outside of the zone. And don’t give me the “How long until we blame Guillermo Martinez?” shit. It’s April 1st. Give the hitting coach more than a weekend before you grab the pitchforks.

So the story was that the offense was putrid for more of the night. But they spring to life in the later innings. With one out in the 7th, the Orioles decided to pull David Hess, who had a no-hitter going to that point. I agreed with the decision, as it was Hess’ first start of the year, he was at 82 pitches, he had only thrown 42 pitches in his last start, and there’s six months left in the season. ANYWAY. As the baseball gods were surely angry, Pedro Araujo came in and walked Justin Smoak, before giving up a two-run bomb to Randal Grichuk. Rowdy Tellez then picked up a single. Of course, Teoscar Hernandez grounded into an inning-ending double play after that, but the Jays did look decent for half a minute.

And Freddy Galvis hit his first homer as a Blue Jay in the 8th. Fun.

Know how awful the Orioles are? Despite all of the moaning about the Jays’ anemic offense, they were still able to get runners on 2nd and 3rd, down by only three runs, with 1 out in the 9th. Kevin Pillar (who was pinch hitting for Tellez) hit a sac fly to make it 6-4, and Hernandez followed that with an RBI triple to make it a one-run game. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. picked up a strikeout to end the game. The Jays came that close to tying the game, after looking lost at the plate, after having their starter get shelled, after being no-hit for most of the game… and in the end, they lost 6-5. Not the worst result, all things considered.

It was a good thing that Sam Gaviglio only worked one inning last night, as the Jays needed him to eat some innings tonight. He started in the 7th, getting Dwight Smith Jr. to ground out, and Jonathan Villar to strike out… but then Trey Mancini hit a solo shot. Ah well. Gaviglio then struck out Rio Ruiz to end the frame.

Gaviglio was back out for the 8th. Renato Nunez, flied out, Davis struck out, and Jesus Sucre grounded out. Quick and easy. He kept rolling in the 9th, striking out Richie Martin, before Cedric Mullins and DSJ each flied out. Gaviglio could make a useful long man.

Tonight’s paid attendance was 10,460. That was the lowest attendance since April, 2010. There are 76 home games left this season. Stroman starts tomorrow. Hopefully a couple more people show up.

03-28-19 DET vs TOR

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
DET	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	0
TOR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0

Box Score

TOR		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA		DET		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
3B	Drury	4	0	1	0	0	0	.250		2B	Harrison	4	0	0	0	1	3	.000
RF	Grichuk	4	0	0	0	0	1	.000		RF	Castellanos	3	0	1	0	1	1	.333
LF	Hernández, T	4	0	1	0	0	0	.250		1B	Cabrera	4	0	0	0	0	1	.000
1B	Smoak	4	0	0	0	0	2	.000		3B	Candelario	4	0	1	0	0	1	.250
2B	Gurriel Jr.	4	0	0	0	0	0	.000		DH	Goodrum	3	1	1	0	1	1	.333
CF	Pillar	4	0	0	0	0	1	.000		LF	Stewart, C	4	1	1	2	0	2	.250
DH	Tellez	2	0	0	0	1	1	.000		C	Greiner	4	0	0	0	0	3	.000
C	Jansen	3	0	0	0	0	1	.000		SS	Mercer	2	0	0	0	1	1	.000
SS	Galvis	3	0	0	0	0	1	.000		CF	Mahtook	4	0	0	0	0	2	.000

TOR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA		DET	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Stroman	7.0	2	0	0	4	7	94-53	0.00		Zimmermann	7.0	1	0	0	0	4	70-47	0.00
Biagini	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	14-10	0.00		Jiménez, J	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	14-8	0.00
Giles	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	12-9	0.00		Alcántara, V	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	11-7	0.00
Hudson, D	1.0	2	2	2	0	2	17-13	18.00		Greene	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	13-9	0.00

Welcome to the rebuild (feat. Free Baseball™)!

There’s something cathartic about having a collective understanding that the Blue Jays are not going to be good this year, and that really, that’s okay. Maybe it was just the usual Opening Day excitement, but I thought there was something worth cheering for today, even if the end goal isn’t to win. I want to see the kids play.

And here’s a quick tip from my Opening Day soap box - if you’re going to be all curmudgeonly and feel the need to point out that this team is bad and that it’s going to be a long season every time that something goes wrong and shout about the manager or the front office or Rowdy Tellez’s weight, then this is going to be a miserable year for you, and you’ll quickly become insufferable to others. As said above, once you adjust your expectations, you’re bound to enjoy the season a bit more.

Now on to the game itself…

One of the few veterans on this year’s roster had one heck of a performance. Marcus Stroman got off to a great start, with a line of 7.0 IP, 2 H, 4 BB, 7 K. After a four-pitch walk to the first batter of the game, which seemed to be caused by high energy from the pre-game, he settled down nicely. The most encouraging part of Stroman’s performance was the combination of strikeouts and low pitch count. With a relatively weak defensive team behind him, it will be hard to find success as a groundball pitcher. And when Stroman gets strikeouts, he tends to see his pitch count rise quickly in the middle innings. That didn’t happen today, though, and the Jays’ ace had the Opening Day he would have dreamt of.

As for the bats… well, Jordan Zimmermann pitched had a nice outing. The offence didn’t do much of anything. Zimmermann actually had a perfect game rolling through 6.2 innings, until Teoscar Hernandez broke it up with an infield single. Apart from that, the only other highlight against Zimmermann must have been the deep flyout that Danny Jansen hit in the 3rd. Zimmermann only had four strikeouts, but the Blue Jays seemed to have adopted a “hit ‘em where they are” sort of approach. It was that kind of day.

The Jays second hit of the game came with one out in the 9th, when Brandon Drury laced a single into left field. The Jays didn’t do anything with that, and did even less in the 10th inning. Brutal performance on offence.

With Stroman’s strong outing, the bullpen had a limited appearance today. That will be a good thing all season long. In a surprising twist, Joe Biagini was the first reliever out of the chute, though I suppose Montoyo doesn’t have many other established relievers for high leverage situations. And you know what? Montoyo nailed it. Biagini struck out the side, retiring Jordi Mercer, Mikie Mahtook, and Josh Harrison.

Montoyo took what appeared to be another gamble in the 9th, when he turned to Ken Giles in a non-save situation. The strikeout train continued, as Nick Castellanos struck out on a ball in the dirt, and Miguel Cabrera struck out after that, and Jeimer Candelario made it three strikeouts in a row. Again.

Six batters, six strikeouts. I did not expect that from Biagini and Giles.

Daniel Hudson made his Blue Jays debut in the 10th. Niko Goodrum hit a leadoff double. Things got worse after that, when Christin Stewart hit a two-run homer. It was an ugly slider. After a quick out, he hit Mercer with a fastball. Hudson bounced back after that, striking out Mahtook and Harrison to end the inning.

I will quickly point out that Hudson has been better than John Axford over the past two seasons. At this point in the game, with Biagini and Giles already used, I think it would have been understandable to go to Axford had he been available. And let’s be fair - the other options were Gaviglio, Mayza, Guerra, and Luciano. Hudson was the most established reliever available. So that’s my defence of the decision to go to him. But he didn’t pitch well today.

Anyway. That doesn’t make the loss any better. The pitching was excellent until it wasn’t, and the offence was non-existent. Matt Shoemaker takes on former Blue Jay Matt/Matthew Boyd tomorrow night.

05-10-18 SEA vs TOR

Dan Hamilton/USA Today

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
SEA	4	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	9	17	0
TOR	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	8	0

Box Score

TOR		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA		SEA		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
LF	Granderson	2	0	0	0	1	1	.276		SS	Segura	6	2	4	0	0	1	.305
LF	Alford	0	0	0	0	1	0	.167		RF	Haniger	6	0	2	1	0	2	.297
3B	Donaldson	4	0	3	0	0	1	.241		2B	Canó	4	1	2	1	0	1	.286
2B	Solarte	4	0	1	0	0	0	.270		DH	Cruz	3	0	0	0	2	0	.240
RF	Hernández, T	4	0	0	0	0	3	.257		1B	Healy, R	4	2	2	1	1	0	.260
1B	Smoak	4	0	1	0	0	2	.254		3B	Seager, K	5	2	2	5	0	0	.241
CF	Pillar	3	1	1	0	0	0	.315		C	Zunino	4	1	2	1	1	1	.194
PH	Pompey	1	0	0	0	0	1	.222		CF	Heredia	4	0	0	0	1	3	.244
C	Martin, R	3	1	1	2	0	1	.151		LF	Romine, An	5	1	3	0	0	1	.174
PH	Ureña, R	1	0	0	0	0	1	.000
DH	Morales, K	3	0	0	0	0	0	.143
SS	Gurriel Jr.	3	1	1	0	0	0	.215

TOR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA		SEA	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Happ, J	3.1	10	7	7	2	3	84-52	4.80		Leake	7.0	6	2	2	1	6	101-76	5.72
Petricka	1.2	2	1	1	2	1	37-23	4.15		Rzepczynski	0.0	1	1	1	1	0	7-3	10.13
Loup	2.0	2	0	0	1	3	41-22	4.02		Bradford	0.0	1	0	0	0	0	1-1	2.40
Mayza	2.0	3	1	1	0	2	32-26	4.26		Pazos	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	9-7	1.35
										Díaz	1.0	0	0	0	0	3	19-14	1.86

The offence has cooled off significantly (including the disappearance of Travis, Morales, Martin, and Grichuk), the rotation is one of the very worst in baseball, there are more than a couple of injuries right now, and the team doesn't have a closer. Even so... the Jays entered today's game only 2.0 games back of a playoff spot. This team is going to be fine. It's still very early.

Now to expand on that a little.

The Jays have seven healthy players on the roster with wRC+ marks north of 100. One of those is Donaldson, at 116 (he has averaged ~150 since joining the Jays). Meanwhile, Martin, Morales, Grichuk, and Travis are all at 77 or lower. But each of those guys has averaged at least 100 in recent years and throughout their respective careers. Will they all reach that again this year? It’s unlikely. But it is likely that we will see serious improvement from a couple, and at least marginal improvement from the others. I would bet on Travis, given that he’s the youngest of the bunch and with the best track record among the young guys. Three bad weeks isn’t enough to have me believe that he suddenly can’t hit anymore. Meanwhile, the only two regulars who are seriously over-performing are Pillar and Solarte. Even Smoak isn’t on fire this year. Pearce and Granderson have done what we expected in their platoon roles. All of this to say that the offence has been bad this year, but there’s definitely reason to expect them to improve.

The rotation is among the worst in baseball. The rotation’s ERA is now 5.53. It was 4.42 last year, without Sanchez, and with Bolsinger and co. That’s a huge difference, despite adding Sanchez and Garcia, who should each be huge improvements over last year’s group. As Gregor points out, the rotation could be the very worst by the end of the night.

But again, this is a rotation with Stroman-Sanchez-Happ-Estrada-Garcia. Before the year began, they were thought to be among the top-10 in baseball. Now obviously, they’ve been putrid so far this year. But do you really expect to continue with an ERA of 4.80 this year, or for Stroman to continue with an ERA of 7.71 (remember, Stroman had an ERA of 3.20 in 303.2 innings between July, 2016 and September, 2017)? Garcia might not live up to our low expectations, and Estrada is probably due for a slide this year, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to conclude that the entire rotation has fallen off a cliff all of a sudden. There’s talent in that group.

The bullpen has been over performing. We all know that. They’re overworked, and are now without a closer. They’ll likely take a step back. Brace yourselves.

All told, though, I don’t understand where the attitude of “This is who they really are” has come from. I don’t know why it’s so easy to accept the past month as though it should be the norm going forward for those who are struggling, while discounting their fairly lengthy track records.
So far, this is a team that has had to overcome all kinds of under-performance, and still finds themselves in the thick of a “playoff race” (or whatever you want to call 2.5 games back of the playoffs on May 10). Bear in mind that the competition, the Angels and apparently the Mariners, have had relatively smooth sailing to this point.

It’s still very early. As easy as it is to be needlessly pessimistic and throw in the towel after a poor 10-day stretch, it seems more sensible to me to recognize that the team is due to regress in a positive direction, which should only help their playoff chances moving forward. Remember how good things seemed only 10 days ago? They were 16-12 and everything was fine. That was only 10 days ago.
The realistic goal this year was always the second Wild Card, and the fact that the Jays have withstood so much under-performance to date hasn’t changed my mind that they should still find themselves chasing that spot come September.

04-14-18 TOR vs CLE

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
TOR	0	0	0	4	0	0	1	0	3	8	7	0
CLE	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	12	2

Box Score

CLE		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA		TOR		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
SS	Lindor	5	2	3	1	0	1	.241		DH	Granderson	3	0	0	0	0	1	.324
2B	Kipnis	5	0	1	1	0	1	.164		DH	Pearce	2	2	1	2	0	0	.233
3B	Ramírez, J	4	1	1	0	1	2	.160		LF	Hernández, T	5	0	2	2	0	1	.400
1B	Alonso	4	0	1	1	0	2	.191		1B	Smoak	4	1	0	0	1	3	.288
DH	Encarnacion	4	0	1	0	0	1	.146		3B	Solarte	4	1	0	0	1	0	.286
RF	Naquin, T	4	0	2	1	0	0	.280		C	Martin, R	4	0	0	0	0	1	.152
C	Gomes	3	0	1	0	1	2	.194		CF	Pillar	4	1	2	1	0	1	.308
CF	Zimmer	4	0	1	0	0	1	.250		SS	Díaz	4	2	2	3	0	0	.237
LF	Davis, R	4	1	1	0	0	1	.240		RF	Grichuk	3	0	0	0	1	2	.071

CLE	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA		TOR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Clevinger	4.0	3	4	4	2	5	82-48	2.70		Stroman	5.0	9	4	4	2	5	99-62	7.98
Otero	2.0	0	0	0	0	2	27-18	6.00		Barnes, D	1.0	2	0	0	0	2	23-16	1.23
McAllister	0.1	0	1	0	1	0	9-4	6.75		Clippard	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	10-7	2.35
Miller	0.2	1	0	0	0	1	13-10	0.00		Tepera	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	9-6	2.25
Belisle	1.1	3	3	3	0	1	33-21	5.06		Osuna	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	13-10	0.00
Olson	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	6-4	5.40

The Blue Jays were down 4-0, and then scored eight unanswered runs. Aprobado!

No recap tonight. Just some thoughts on Hernandez.

He has shown tremendous upside since coming to the Jays. As you know, he had eight home runs in fewer than 100 plate appearances last year, and posted a wRC+ of 132. He looked great again in spring training this year. Tonight, he hit two doubles in his debut, and picked up a couple of RBIs. It’s been a terrific career with the Blue Jays so far.

But as exciting as he’s been, I think we should still pump the brakes a little. Over the course of his minor league career, Hernandez always struggled with strikeouts. That continued last September, when he struck out 38% of the time. He also showed decent power in the minors, but certainly nothing compared to a .341 ISO. The most homers he ever hit in a season was 17, once in 455 plate appearances, and again in 514. Remember, he hit eight last year in 95.

What does that mean? For me, it means that the September sample shouldn’t carry too much weight. It was such a drastic departure from his career norm, that I find it hard to believe that he will sustain it. Obviously he did tonight, but based on the evidence before us, it’s not likely to continue.
Moreover, he has still shown holes in his game. Do you know who he is very similar to? Randal Grichuk, a player with ~1,500 plate appearances under his belt. The key difference is that Grichuk has shown exceptional power consistently at the MLB level, along with the strikeouts. Grichuk is also a slightly better defender, but that’s not as important to this discussion.

All of this to say that, while Grichuk has struggled so far and Hernandez has looked excellent, both have done so in small samples, and have should be expected to regress in opposite directions. Based on what we’ve seen over their careers, Grichuk should level out to be a slightly above-average player, and Hernandez… we don’t know. Which is why the Jays have stuck with Grichuk, and will continue to moving forward.

Now, having said all of that, this isn’t meant to be a put-down on Hernandez. I don’t dislike him, or “hate him,” as I’ve been accused of. I just think that there are enough red flags throughout his career, and not enough of a positive sample size as yet, for the Jays to hitch their wagon to him. You know what would make the most sense to me? If the Jays could somehow get rid of Morales. That way, they could keep Hernandez in LF, while platooning Granderson and Pearce at DH. Based on the 40-man, that seems to be the optimal lineup at this point.

Hernandez has shown terrific flashes so far in his career. I just want to see him do it for a little longer before I get too excited.

04-04-18 CHW vs TOR

Line Score - Final

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
CWS	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	4	7	0
TOR	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	3	7	1

Box Score

TOR		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA		CWS		AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA
2B	Travis	4	0	0	0	0	1	.050		2B	Moncada	3	0	1	1	1	1	.200
3B	Donaldson	3	1	1	0	1	0	.250		RF	García, A	3	0	0	1	0	2	.318
1B	Smoak	4	1	2	0	0	1	.385		DH	Abreu	4	1	1	1	0	1	.400
LF	Granderson	2	0	2	0	0	0	.350		1B	Davidson	3	1	1	1	0	1	.263
LF	Pearce	2	1	1	1	0	0	.286		LF	García, L	0	0	0	0	0	0	.250
RF	Grichuk	4	0	0	0	0	3	.087		1B	Delmonico	4	0	0	0	0	1	.077
C	Martin, R	4	0	0	1	0	1	.133		C	Castillo	3	1	1	0	1	1	.200
DH	Morales, K	4	0	1	1	0	1	.143		3B	Sánchez	4	1	2	0	0	1	.333
CF	Pillar	4	0	0	0	0	2	.320		SS	Anderson, Ti	4	0	0	0	0	2	.300
SS	Ngoepe	3	0	0	0	0	1	.100		CF	Engel	3	0	1	0	0	1	.250

TOR	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA		CWS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	P-S	ERA
Sanchez, Aa	6.0	5	3	3	2	7	98-58	5.40		Fulmer, C	5.0	5	3	3	1	5	73-48	5.40
Oh, S	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	17-13	2.25		Bummer	0.2	2	0	0	0	1	13-7	0.00
Tepera	1.0	1	1	1	0	0	10-6	2.25		Farquhar	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	18-13	5.40
Loup	1.0	0	0	0	0	2	14-11	0.00		Jones, N	1.1	0	0	0	0	1	10-8	0.00

Lots of warning track power tonight.

Sanchez had some good stuff tonight. He wasn’t great, but he was good. His final line reads 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 7 SO, 2 BB. Sanchez located his fastball well, and his off-speed pitches had plenty of movement. I really don’t have a whole lot to say about the start. This was basically the base that you expect Sanchez to build on. He gave up a solo shot to Matt Davidson, and limited the damage after that.

There were some shenanigans in the 5th, though. The inning started off with a walk to Welington Castillo and a single from Yolmer Sanchez. A couple of batters later, Sanchez hit Adam Engel with a pitch to load the bases. Yoan Moncada then drove one to the outfield wall. Watch this for the whole picture of what happened next.

At first, it seemed as though Granderson made a terrific catch, and Castillo made a boneheaded decision on the base paths. As it turned out, the umpires got the decision wrong, and after review, they awarded each runner a base, resulting in a run for the White Sox. I agree with the reasoning, even if it seemed a little strange at first. Basically, once the umpire signalled that Granderson made the catch, the runners couldn’t be expected to advance, because they weren’t forced to. As such, they couldn’t be called out for not advancing, and the umpires had to make the judgment call that it was reasonable to expect that, if the umpires hadn’t made the wrong call, the runners would have advanced one base each. I buy that.

The Jays had a chance to score early tonight, but Grichuk and his strikeout tendencies got in the way. After a Donaldson walk and a Granderson single, they had runners on the corners with two outs, before Grichuk struck out. That was a theme throughout the game. The bats went quiet after that, until Granderson and Smoak hit back-to-back doubles, and Martin scored one in the 4th. Morales struck out to end the inning.

The 6th was more interesting. Donaldson hit a single, and Smoak hit a double to start things off. With a lefty on the mound, Gibbons went to the bench. The switch worked, as Pearce picked up a pinch-hit RBI single. Grichuk then had an opportunity to pile a few runs on. He went up 3-0 in the count, before he swung at two balls below his ankles, and ultimately struck out watching strike three cross near the middle of the zone. Grichuk’s strikeouts were ugly tonight. Martin tried to bring a run in after that, but Smoak was thrown out at home. When it looked as though the Jays might have wasted a golden opportunity, Morales came through with an RBI single.

So Grichuk joined Travis in the doghouse (Travis had another bad night, going 0-for-4 with a strikeout). That doesn’t mean that Teoscar Hernandez should replace him. Not even close. As good as Hernandez looked last September with his eight home runs, he also struck out 38% of the time. That is Randal Grichuk. Grichuk brings lots of power and lots of strikeouts. The difference is that Grichuk has done it at the Major League level for a lot longer than a month, unlike Hernandez. Grichuk also brings noticeably better defence. Yes, Grichuk is off to a slow start, but he isn’t going to lose his job, especially not to someone who is a slightly lesser version of himself.

Back on topic - I didn’t count how many balls the Jays hit deep into the outfield, but it seemed like a lot. They just kept landing in gloves.

Oh worked the 7th inning. He picked up a couple of strikeouts against Moncada and Avisail Garcia, as well as a groundout from Tim Anderson. Engel mixed a single in there as well. Tepera came in for the 8th. He didn’t have a clean inning. Jose Abreu hit a leadoff home run. Tepera then hit Davidson with a pitch. Nicky Delmonico grounded into a double play (the Travis-Ngoepe duo has been smooth). Castillo flied out to end the frame. Loup worked the 9th against three right-handers. He got two strikeouts and a flyout. Loup has looked good so far.

Off-day tomorrow. Weekend series against the Rangers on tap. We have more wins than losses.