After a tough loss to the Rays last night, the Blue Jays were right back at it, trying to maintain a WC spot.Alek Manoah got the start with Alejandro Kirk behind the plate, Corey Dickerson in CF and Breyvic Valera at the hot corner. Could the Blue Jays even the series against the Rays? Here is tonight's game recap.
Game Highlights:
- The Rays took the lead in the bottom of the 2nd as Brandon Lowe singled scoring Mike Zunino
- The Blue Jays tied the game in the top of the 3rd on a groundout by Breyvic Valera that scored Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
- The Blue Jays took the lead in the top of the 5th as Gurriel Jr. smashed a solo bomb to left-center
- The Rays tied the game in the bottom half inning as Joey Wendle singled scoring Brandon Lowe
- Drew Rasmussen pitching line: 5IP 4H 2R (both earned) 1BB 3K 70 pitches (52 for strikes)
- Alek Manoah pitching line: 6IP 5H 2R (both earned) 6BB 7K 99 strikes (60 for strikes)
- The Blue Jays retook the lead in the top of the 6th on a sac fly by Bo Bichette that scored Marcus Semien
- The Blue Jays added a run in the top of the 8th as Teoscar Hernandez singled scoring George Springer
- Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless 9th for his 20th save of the season
- Final score: Blue Jays 4 Rays 2
My Take:
- Alek Manoah had a rough start, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits while walking 6 and striking out 7. His outing wasn't helped that Joe West, arguably the worst umpire in the league, was behind the plate.
- The bullpen also had a rough time with West. Trevor Richards walked a pair in the 8th and Romano walked the bases loaded in the 9th. Romano will likely be unavailable to pitch tomorrow given the heavy workload tonight.
- The Blue Jays did a nice job with timely hitting. More importantly, they scored all but one run with hits other than the long ball.
- Every Blue Jays starter but Corey Dickerson, Alejandro Kirk and Marcus Semien (although he drew a walk and scored a run) had at least one hit
- The Blue Jays were an abysmal 1-9 with runners in scoring position
- In terms of the WC race, the Yankees and Red Sox won, and the Mariners were leading Oakland, meaning the Blue Jays remain a 0.5 game ahead of the Yankees for the 2nd WC spot, 2.5 games ahead of the A's and 3.5 games ahead of the Mariners (the Blue Jays will gain another half game on the loser of tonight's Mariners/A's game (The Mariners were up 4-2 in the top of the 7th at the time of this posting.
- Up next, the Blue Jays go for 2 straight wins. It's going to be a bullpen day with Julian Merryweather starting against Rays righty Luis Patino
