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| Danny Jansen hit a solo HR in a losing effort as the Dodgers routed the Blue Jays 12-2 |
After a rain-shortened loss yesterday to the Royals, the Blue Jays limped home and opened a weekend set against the LA Dodgers. The series will feature Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, who signed baseball's richest deal and stealthily deferred the vast majority of it to the end of the deal. It will be interesting to see how Blue Jays fans greet Ohtani, who was said to be on a plane to Toronto, only to announce the record deal with the Dodgers on his instagram page the next day. The Blue Jays won the 2023 season against the Dodgers 2-1, outscoring the Dodgers 21-12. Chris Bassitt got the start with Danny Jansen behind the plate. Addison Barger was in LF and IKF got the start at the hot corner. Cavan Biggio got the start at 2B. Could the Blue Jays snap the 3-game skid and start the weekend with a win? Here is tonught's game recap.
Game Highlights:
- The Dodgers opened the scoring in the top of the 1st as Shohei Ohtani whacked a solo blast to right-center and into the Blue Jays bullpen
- The Dodgers added a run in the top of the 3rd as Freddie Freeman singled scoring Mookie Betts
- A batter later, Will Smith singled scoring Ohtani
- A batter later, Max Muncy hammered a 3-run bomb to right; Also scoring Freeman and Smith
- Four batters later, Gavin Lux singled home Teoscar Hernandez
- Chris Bassitt pitching line: 2.2IP 9H 7R (all earned) 3BB 4K 77 pitches (48 for strikes)
- The Dodgers added a run in the top of the 4th as Smith smacked a solo blast to left and into the Blue Jays bullpen\
- The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom half of the inning as Danny Jansen drilled a solo jack to left
- The Dodgers added a run in the top of the 5th as Betts doubled scoring Andy Pages
- The Dodgers added a run in the top of the 6th as Muncy singled scoring Smith. Cavan Biggio was charged with a throwing error on the play
- Three batters later, Muncy scored on a sac fly by Pages
- Gavin Stone pitching line: 7IP 2H 1R (earned) 2BB 2K 94 pitches (58 for strikes)
- The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom half of the inning on a ground out hit by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that scored Biggio
- The Dodgers added a run in the top of the 9th on a sac fly by Smith that scored Miguel Rojas
- Final score: Dodgers 12 Blue Jays 2
My Take:
- Chris Bassitt was lit up for 7 runs on 9 hits while walking 3 and striking out 4 over just 2.2 innings. Shohei Ohtani taking Bassitt yard (more on that later) seemed to set the tone for the game and the rest of Bassitt's start today. He simply wasn't fooling the Dodgers hitters. The season for Basstt has not exactly been what 2023 was for him. Bassitt was lit up in his first start of the season last year and followed that rough start up with 4 consecutive quality starts and 3 wins. He struggled through 5 innings his first 2 starts this season, pitched three straight quality starts and then ran into tonight's disaster. The Blue Jays need Bassitt to figure it out because there are major injury and performance concerns in AAA with Rickey Tiederman potentially done for the year with an elbow injury and Alek Manoah has certainly not earned another shot at the big leagues.
- The bullpen gave up a further 5 runs on 10 hits while walking 2 and striking out 3 over the last 6.1 innings. There were no sucesses for any of the relievers. There has to be concern about the health of Erik Swanson, who received a visit from trainer Jose Ministral
- Back to the martyr of the night, Shohei Ohtani, who must be thanking his lucky stars that he picked the Dodgers over the Blue Jays in free agency. The team he was facing tonight very much resembled the one he left in free agency tonight, a lone offensive highlight (solo HR by Danny Jansen) followed by mostly disappointment from the rest of the lineup. Time and time again, year after year, Ohtani endured being the star in Anaheim and one of the lone offensive threats. He clearly wanted to experience success after never making the playoffs once in 6 tries with the Angels. It must have felt so good to shut up the Blue Jays fans by going deep in the 1st inning.
- The Blue Jays were 1-7 with runners in scoring position.
- Up next, the Blue Jays try to snap the 4-game skid and avoid their 4th series loss of the season and their 1st season series loss. Yusei Kikuchi starts against Dodgers righty Tyler Glasnow
