Game #124 Texas Rangers (60-60) @ Toronto Blue Jays (51-73) - game recap

Danny Santana was 2-5, scoring 3 runs and driving in 3 to lead the Texas Rangers to a 7-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays

After a convincing 3-0 shutout yesterday on my birthday, highlighted by a strong four inning performance by Thomas Pannone and a save by Ken Giles, making his first appearance since August 7th, the Blue Jays wrapped up this series and this 20 day stretch of games with a matinee against the Rangers. There have been definite highlights in this stretch of games from sweeping Kansas City and taking the first two in Baltimore to create a new longest winning streak mark for the season to taking 2 of three in Tampa Bay and then coming home and splitting  a 4-game series against the Yankees. Today, they had a chance to end this season-long stretch of games with an exclamation point and sweeping Texas. Rowdy Tellez got the start at 1st base a day after being recalled from Buffalo. Danny Jansen was back behind the plate after Reese McGuire got the start last night. Vlad got the half day off with Brandon Drury at the hot corner. Could the Blue Jays dig deep and sweep the Rangers? Here is today's game recap.

Game Highlights: 

• The Rangers opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd as Delino DeShields singled home Nomar Mazara
• The Rangers added a pair of runs in the top of the 4th as Danny Santana doubled home Kiner Isiah-Falefa and DeShields
• A batter later, Elvis Andrus singled home Santana
• Sean Reid-Foley pitching line: 3.1IP 4H 3R (all earned) 3BB 3K 88 pitches (56 for strikes)
• The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom half of the inning as Randal Grichuk scored on a groundout by Brandon Drury
• The Rangers added a run in the top of the 6th as Andrus doubled scoring Santana
• The Blue Jays got one back in the bottom half of the inning as Teoscar Hernandez scored on a wild pitch by Emmanuel Clase
• Same batter, Danny Jansen singled home Rowdy Tellez
• Kolby Allard pitching line: 5.2IP 4H 3R (all earned) 3BB 5K 91 pitches (59 for strikes)
• The Rangers added a run in the top of the 8th as Mazara absolutely annihilated a solo bomb off the basing of the 4th deck just inside the foul pole in right
• The Rangers added a run in the top of the 8th as Santana whacked a solo blast to right and into the Rangers bullpen
• Final score: Rangers 7 Blue Jays 3

My Take:

• SRF battled the strike zone right from the get-go, and the Rangers batters were not making it easy either as they kept fouling off pitch after pitch, leaving Reid-Foley's pitch count north of 50 after just 2 innings. While he had a productive 10 pitch 3rd inning, it was back to battling the strike zone in the 4th. All told, SRF allowed 3 runs on 4 hits while walking 3 and striking  out 3. He also hit a batter. I suppose one positive is SRF at least kept the ball in the ballpark.
•  It was a tough one offensively for the Blue Jays who were held to 6 hits, including a double by Bo Bichette to extend his career long on-base streak to an impressive 17 games. Even when he was held hitless the one game, he drew a walk.
• Danny Jansen was the only Blue Jay with multiple hits (2). Cavan Biggio (a hit and 2 walks) and Randal Grichuk (a hit and a walk) also got on base multiple times
• It was a rough day at the plate in general. As a team, the Blue Jays struck out 13 times. Teoscar Hernandez had the worst day, striking out three times. Everybody but Rowdy Tellez struck out at least once.
• Up next, after a much needed off-day tomorrow, the Blue Jays open up a 3-game series against the Seattle Mariners, who they face in Seattle a week later. Jacob Waguespack will start the opener of this weekend series. The Mariners have not set their rotation for this weekend yet. One pitcher who will definitely not be pitching for the Mariners is Felix Hernandez, who has been battling shoulder issues most of the season. The Blue Jays took the season series 4-3 in 2018, including winning 3 of 4 in Seattle, including the game I attended August 2nd.