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Corey Seager and Nathaniel Lowe had back to back infield singles with 2 outs in the 1st, but Adolis Garcia grounded out to end the inning. George Springer, Bo Bichette, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr each had singles in the first to put the Jays in flight 1-0, following a Teoscar Hernandez strikeout, Bichette scored on a Lourdes Gurriel force out, Matt Chapman walked, but Alejando Kirk flied out to end the inning. Jonah Heim singled to start the Rangers 3rd and moved to 2nd on a Hernandez error, moved to 3rd on a single by Brad Miller, scored on a Marcus Semien double, Miller scored on a Seager ground out to tie the game, and Lowe gave the Rangers the lead with a single to score Semien, following a strikeout Kole Calhoun singled to move Rangers to 1st and second, but Andy Ibanez flied out to end the inning. Hernandez reached on a hit by pitch with 1 out in the bottom half, a groundout moved him to second, Chapman walked, but Kirk ended the inning with a ground out, but Bichette had a homer leading off the 5th to tie the score at 3. Calhoun walked with 1 out in the 6th, moved to second on an Ibanez singled, but a flyout and ground out ended the inning. Kirk singled with 1 out in the 6th, Raimel Tapia reached on a force out, and Santiago Espinal pinch hitting for Cavan Biggio gave the Jays the lead with which turned out to be the game-winning RBI a 2 out double, but Springer struck out to keep it at 4-3. Guerrero Jr singled with 1 out in the 7th, Hernandez was hit by a pitch, but Gurriel popped out, and Chapman hit into a force to end the inning. The last scoring chance on the afternoon came in the Jays 8th; Kirk lead off with a single to RF, Tapia sacrificed the pinch runner (Gosuke Katoh) but Espinal flied out and Springer grounded out. Kevin Gausman allowed 3 runs on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts in 5 innings, Trevor Richards (1-0) had a strikeout, hit and walk in a scoreless inning, Yimi Garcia (2nd hold) and Tim Mayza (1st hold) each had a 1-2-3 inning, and Jordan Romano (2nd save) had a 1-2-3 9th for his second save in as many chances. Danr Dunning allowed 3 runs on 5 hits (1 homer) with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 5 innings and Brett Martin (0-1) allowed 1 run on 2 hits with a strikeout in 2/3 of an inning.
The series finale goes on Sunday where the Jays go for the sweep and a perfect 3-0 start to the year. Hyun Jin Ryu (14-10, 4.37 last year) starts for the Jays while the Rangers give the ball to Spencer Howard (0-5, 7.43 with the Phillies & Rangers last year). First pitch from Rogers Centre scheduled for around 1:37.
Rangers 12 @ Jays 6. Welp, when you play with fire, you are bound to get burnt. Offense really showed up this weekend, the pitching?? Let’s just say there’s a lot of room for improvement and with 4 games up coming at the little league stadium in the Bronx it may not come in the next 4 days. George Springer lead off the bottom of the 1st with a home run, following 2 outs Teoscar Hernandez and Lourdes Gurriel each had singles which lead to Matt Chapman’s first Blue Jay home to conclude the first inning scoring. Each team would have solo home runs in the 2nd: Nick Solak got the Rangers on the board with a 2 out homer in the top half, while Danny Jansen restored the Jays 4 run lead at 5-1 with a 1 out home run, and then Vlad Guerrero Jr would make it 6-1 with a solo home run in the 3rd. Mitch Garver started the 4th with a walk, 2 batters later Andy Ibanez had an RBI double, Solak singled which moved runners to the corner, Charlie Culberson cut the Jays lead in half at 6-3 with an RBI single, moving to second on the throw, Jonah Heim had an RBI single which knocked Hyun Jin Ryu from the game, Brad Miller tied the game with a 2 RBI double, Marcus Semien struck out, but Corey Seager put the Rangers in front for good with a single for a 7-6 lead before Garver ended the inning with a strikeout. Jansen had a 2 out double in the bottom half, but Springer struck out to end the inning. Adolis Garcia walked to start the 5th, stole second, following a fly out Solak drew a walk, Nathaniel Lowe singled which scored Garcia and moved Solak to 3rd, Heim walked to load the bases, Miller added the 9th run on a sac fly before Semien struck out to end the frame. Solak walked with 1 out in the 7th, and then later in the inning Miller and Heim would record back-to-back home runs to complete the scoring on the afternoon. Springer doubled with 1 out in the 7th, but Bo Bichette and Guerrero Jr followed with a ground out and strike out respectively. Raimel Tapia started the 9th with a single, Cavan Biggio was hit by a pitch, but Jansen flew out, and Springer and Bichette struck out to end things. Ryu allowed 6 runs on 5 hits (1 home run) with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 3.1, and Julian Merryweather (0-1) allowed 1 run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts in 2/3 of an inning. Spencer Howard allowed 6 runs on 6 hits (4 home runs) with 5 strikeouts in 3 innings, Brock Burke (1-0) had 1 walk and 1 hit with 5 strikeouts in 2 scoreless innings, while Dennis Santana (1st hold) allowed 1 hit in 1 scoreless inning. In other action from the division the Rays swept 3 game from the Orioles, and the Yankees won 2 of 3 from the Red Sox. Rays lead the division, Yankees & Jays are a game back, Red Sox are 2 back with the Orioles at 3 back.
4 game series in the Bronx starts on Monday. Jameson Taillon (8-6, 4.30 in 2021) starts for the Yanks while the jays hand the ball to Alek Manoah (9-2, 3.22 last year) with game time slated for 7:05.
The non-series losing win streak ended with a thud. Really, I never got worried that they never completed the sweeps, the object of the game is just to not lose series, so if you win 2 out of every 3 games your going to end up with around 100 wins at the end of the year. The concerning thing is the starting pitching hasn't taken off. Kikuchi had a good outing the other day against the Bombers but has mostly been not good, Berrios has been up and down, Bichette & Chapman haven't gotten going yet. And the Yankees have been in a layup line against the dregs in the American League: Tigers, Royals, Orioles, Cleveland, Texas, so I'm not that worried about them either at this time even though they just won 2 of 3 this past week.
They have the 6th best record in baseball but are a sizzling 11 games behind the Yankees in the division which just goes to show you how easy the Yankees ae making it look. The Jays have given them a gift: they lost a home series to the Orioles (probably lucky they weren't swept) and the last 2 games have been outscored 22-5! Unlike in 2015 when the large division deficit wasn't a big concern because they had a bunch of head to heads left (I believe 13 that year in August & September), this year including this week they have 9 more head to heads left, so even IF the Jays won all 9 of the remaining games, they are still 2 games behind. That's why I think the division is toast. The Yankees are 40-10 in their last 50 games, expand that out to a full season, and that's a 130 win pace! Completely unsustainable, and guys like Nestor Cortez and Clay Holmes will probably come back to earth, but it's a scary thought when Gerrit Cole is their "worst" starter currently and yet they have 5 more wins then the next closest team. Rays, Jays, and the Sox are all playing for the 2nd in the division, so it's time to position for that 4th spot which gets the home games.
They have the 6th best record in baseball but are a sizzling 11 games behind the Yankees in the division which just goes to show you how easy the Yankees ae making it look. The Jays have given them a gift: they lost a home series to the Orioles (probably lucky they weren't swept) and the last 2 games have been outscored 22-5! Unlike in 2015 when the large division deficit wasn't a big concern because they had a bunch of head to heads left (I believe 13 that year in August & September), this year including this week they have 9 more head to heads left, so even IF the Jays won all 9 of the remaining games, they are still 2 games behind. That's why I think the division is toast. The Yankees are 40-10 in their last 50 games, expand that out to a full season, and that's a 130 win pace! Completely unsustainable, and guys like Nestor Cortez and Clay Holmes will probably come back to earth, but it's a scary thought when Gerrit Cole is their "worst" starter currently and yet they have 5 more wins then the next closest team. Rays, Jays, and the Sox are all playing for the 2nd in the division, so it's time to position for that 4th spot which gets the home games.
TOR is still a solid team, they'll be fine. Right, 2nd place in the AL east will be a 3 game home series in the first playoff round. Nothing wrong with that. At this point any team playing NY is just hoping to salvage a game in the series. Nobody hits them so don't worry about it. BAL is scrappy and competitive this year, not a pushover, so don't feel bad about that either. They're giving TB a handful at the moment. NY lost 4 games to BAL so far this year, that's 25%, or a quarter, of their total losses.
The only thing bringing Holmes back to earth is injury. 99mph 2-seamers with movement and 95+ sinkers don't come back to earth. Not ever.
If the Jays could only get they're crap together and be more consistent they can make a run at the divison. The Yankees are done, what are they waiting for?
Berrios has been so disappointing. If they finish as the first wildcard, they'll host in the Wildcard round, but if the Rays/Orioles/Mariners/other pass the Jays, and they finish as the 5 seed and have to play that best of 3 on the road I wonder if Berrios would even be included on the roster?? It seems outrageous a guy they gave 7 years and more than $130 million too wouldn't be a part of the postseason rotation, but he's been so bad on the road that it would at least warrant a discussion among Ross Atkins/Mark Shapiro/and Jon Schneider.
You were being conservative with that statement. Wow!
Huge setback for TOR this year given all the glowing praise at the beginning of the season.
Almost clockwork whenever they have seasons with high expectations, they choke.
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