Sunday, March 31, 2019

Game #4 Detroit Tigers (2-2) @Toronto Blue Jays (2-2) - game recap

Rowdy Tellez provided the offence for the Blue Jays with a three-run game-tying HR in a losing effort as Toronto fell to Detroit 4-3 in 11 innings

The Blue Jays wrapped up the season-opening series against the Tigers today with herky-jerky righty Trent Thornton on the bump and looking to extend the early season shutout streak. It was learned prior to the game that Clayton Richard, originally slated to start tomorrow against Baltimore would miss his turn with a knee injury. Freddy Galvis was a late scratch with a sore back, ending his consecutive games streak at 327 games. Could the Blue Jays win the first series of the season? Here is today's game recap.

Game Highlights
  • The Blue Jay's avoided having a perfect game against them when Randal Grichuk drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 5th
  • Trent Thornton pitching line: 5IP 2H 0R OBB 8K 75 pitches (47 for strikes)
  • The Tigers opened the scoring in the top of the 7th as Niko Goodrum was forced in by a bases loaded walk
  • The next batter, Jeimer Candelario slapped a single to left, scoring John Hicks and Grayson Greimer
  • Matt Moore pitching line: 7IP 2H 0R 1BB 6K 84 pitches (56 for strikes)
  • The Blue Jays tied it with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the 8th as Rowdy Tellez golfed a three run shot to straightaway center also scoring Kevin Pillar 
  • The Tigers took the lead in the top of the 11th off a Nicholas Castellanos single that plated Greiner
  • Shane Greene pitched a scoreless bottom of the 11th for his second save of the season
  • Final score: Tigers 4 Blue Jays 3
My Take:
  • Unlike the archaic points system in hockey, there are no loser points for getting the game to extra innings in baseball. In some ways that's unfortunate because the Blue Jays deserve some kind of reward for today's effort. It looked like it was going to be another shutout, which would have been the first time in Blue Jays history where the first four games were all shutouts. Rowdy Tellez changed all that with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the 8th, erasing a three run deficit. The Tigers took the lead in the bottom of the 11th and the Blue Jays were oh so close to extending the game, but Teoscar Hernandez got unlucky that his line drive was caught by Tigers second baseman Niko Goodrum
  • Trent Thornton extended the Blue Jays starters shutout streak to 24 innings with 5 strong innings of 2 hit ball. The righty battled through his five innings with Tigers batters making him work with deep counts
  • Richard Urena was both good and bad. He was 3-4 at the plate with a run scored, but he also cost the team a walk-off victory in the bottom of the 10th with an ill-advised attempt to score on an infield single. Had he stayed put, there would have been runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs and Danny Jansen coming up.
  • Up next, the Blue Jays face last season's punching bag as the Baltimore Orioles come to town for a three game set. Last season, the Blue Jays dominated the Orioles winning 14 of the 19 meetings between the two division rivals. Clayton Richard was supposed to start tomorrow's game, but he has a knee injury and can't go. Instead, Sean Reid-Foley is expected to get the start. Reid-Foley had an up and down spring, so hopefully he can keep the shutout streak going. David Hess gets the start for the Orioles.