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| (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press) |
Welcome to the Jaime Garcia show. It might not have been pretty, but it was effective. Garcia’s final line reads 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 SO, 4 H, 2 BB. His stuff looked both really good and really bad. When Garcia was in the zone, his off-speed pitches gave the White Sox fits. He was able to induce lots of soft contact from their half-hearted swings. That was set up by his pitches that were missing. Some intentionally missed. Others bounced off the turf on their way to home plate.
More often than not, Garcia’s missed pitches were unintentional, and missed by a lot. That seemed to affect him when he did hit the strike zone, though, as a few borderline calls didn’t go his way. That said, he also had the White Sox chasing some balls in the dirt. It worked both ways. The only damage came via a Welington Castillo solo shot
As long as Garcia can keep the damage down like he did today, I’ll happily sign up for a season of that. He’s probably going to need to locate a bit better in the future, though.
Not much offence for most of the day. A few hits, a few walks… and then THREE MONSTER HOME RUNS. We’re going to ride this power all summer long.
The Jays only had three baserunners through the first 5.0 innings, and two of those came from Grichuk walks. Incredible. They struck out a bunch and hit some lazy fly balls, while they also kept Yolmer Sanchez busy at 3rd, as he had to deal with a few sharp liners. The Jays finally broke through in the 6th, when Donaldson hit his first bomb of the year, to the opposite field. Between that and the video that Sportsnet showed of him throwing today, it seems as though his shoulder should be good to go. Also, Donaldson didn’t care for Daryl Boston’s whistle (and the White Sox didn’t seem to mind, so we’re cool).
Granderson worked a nice walk in the 7th. He took 10 pitches against the left-handed Luis Avilan, fouling off a few. That was a tough position to put him in, and he came through, in what turned out to be one of the most important plate appearances of the game. I like Curtis Granderson. A couple of batters later, Russell Martin launched a two-run shot. I also like Russell Martin. So does Solarte.
The Jays added another run in the 8th, when Diaz sent one flying over the left field wall. Diaz was bound to start hitting at some point. His exit velocities were very encouraging through the first few games, but the balls were just finding gloves. If he continues to hit them like he has, then we can watch out for him to become a bit of a threat at the bottom of the lineup. Later in the inning, with two outs and Smoak up, the White Sox turned to Aaron Bummer. Smoak reached on an error, Solarte reached on a walk. Granderson flied out to end the inning, but I really just wanted to tell you about Aaron Bummer.
In less exciting but still newsworthy news, Travis hasn’t looked good to start the year. I know he’s not alone. I’m just putting that out there. He had another quiet day today, with two strikeouts and not much else. He has now struck out in 47.1% of his at bats this season. The Jays need him to get going. Imagine what this perfectly average offence could be with a productive Travis. Also, Pillar shouldn’t bat leadoff, so stop it.
Seung-hwan Oh worked the 7th. He didn’t look as good as last night. Castillo took him deep for his second homer of the night. Tim Anderson then grounded out. The next two got aboard, as Leury Garcia walked and Sanchez was hit by a pitch. Oh wiggled his way out of that jam, when Adam Engel and Yoan Moncada each popped out to end the inning. Tepera pitched the 8th. Avisail Garcia flied out, Abreu hit a double, and Matt Davidson struck out. That brought Castillo back up to the plate, representing the go-ahead run. And he struck out on a beautiful slider off the plate. Tepera’s good, man.
Osuna was on for the 9th. Anderson flied out, Garcia grounded out, and Sanchez struck out. Eight strikes on eight pitches for Osuna, who has been damn near untouchable so far this season.
There was some fine defence on display tonight. For the second time this season, Solarte made a heads-up play to prevent a runner from scoring on a ground ball in the 3rd. Granderson then showed his range in the 4th, as he kept Jose Abreu to a single on what would have been a double in years past. Granderson made another smooth play in the 6th, when he caught Abreu trying to advance on a flyout. Save for the very first play of the year, Granderson has played well in LF. For his part, Solarte has done everything we could have hoped for at 3B.
Happ gets the ball opposite former shitbird Miguel Gonzalez tomorrow night.
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