Blue Jays 4 Tigers 1
We got more than two runs. Or actually, we got two runs twice:
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Two in the first: A Vladimir Guerrero home run (what a great thing it was to see that). Daulton Varsho followed with a double off the center field wall (homer in 12 of 30 MLB parks, including Rogers Centre). Jesús Sánchez singled him to third, and a Jack Flaherty wild pitch scored him.
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Yohendrick Piñango flied out to deep center (homer in 10 parks, including RC) to start the inning. Vlad single and Varsho tripled. A Sánchez sac fly got our fourth run home.
We only had six hits and one walk on the day. Vlad and Varsho had two each (and all the extra base hits).
On the pitching side, Kevin Gausman was great. He went six innings, allowing just four hits (all singles) with five strikeouts. He was excellent. Left at 97 pitches.
Yariel Rodríguez got the next four outs and then gave up a very, very soft ground single (33 feet from the plate when Andrés Giménez).
Joe Mantiply came in and wasn’t great. He went single, walk, groundball force at second (Ernie Clement, I figured he could have touched third and then gone to first, but getting the one out was big). That got the Tigers the run. Mantiply threw three straight balls to Riley Green, the next baller, then got two strikes and a weak ground ball to end the inning.
Tyler Rogers came in for the save. He didn’t make it easy either, walking the leadoff guy. Then got a ground ball to short that Giménez made a nice play on and a great throw to second. Schneider tried to turn it, but was just late. It was called out on the field, but the Tigers challenged. It was a very fast challenge as it was obvious. A popout to short got the second out. Tyler went seven pitches to Spencer Torkeleson before getting strike three right on the outside corner (Tigers challenged again, but it caught the zone). Save #1 for Rogers.
After a challenge in last night’s hockey game that seemed to take forever, I appreciated the speed of the challenges in this game.
The bad moment of the game was when Giménez and Piñango collided while going for a popout. Both were calling the ball. The rule of thumb is that the outfielder takes charge, but then Giménez seems to be the captain of the infield. Hard to blame either player.
Jays of the Day: Gausman (0.26 WPA), Varsho (0.19), and Vlad (0.12).
No one gets the ‘Other Award’. The low mark went to Lenyn Sosa (-0.4) and Ernie Clement (-0.4). Sosa hasn’t shown anything this season. Daulton made a couple of good catches in the outfield.
Tomorrow the Jays face the Yankees in da Bronx.
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