Nationals 2 Blue Jays 5
We got a very nice start from Bowden Francis. He seemed to tire in the sixth, giving up a couple of home runs, but he fought his way through the inning. He allowed just the two hits (both home runs), three walks, with four strikeouts. He looked much like he did at the end of last season.
Nick Sandlin had a very nice seventh inning. He’s fun to watch with that sidearm delivery.
Brendon Little had troubles in the eighth with a pair of one-out singles. But a strikeout and a long fly out (Davis Schneider made a nice catch in the left field corner) got him out of the inning.
Yimi Garcia (Jeff Hoffman pitched yesterday) got the ninth. Three quick outs and he had his first save of the season.
Offensively, we got our runs in drips and drabs. A big inning would have felt great.
We scored:
- One in the second: Andrés Giménez hit his third homer of the year. I don’t know if I would have taken the over if it were three before the season started.
- One in the third: Alan Roden hit a one-out double to right field (I thought the right fielder should have gotten to it) and, an out later, Vlad hit his own double to right.
- Two in the fourth: Giménez led off with a walk and then stole second (he’s been very impressive). Alejandro Kirk followed with a double down the right field line on a pitch that was high and off the plate away. I’m unsure if it was a great hit or a dumb pitch to swing at. An out later, Will Wagner singled (hard line drive), giving us runners on the corners, and Nathan Lukes hit an RBI ground out.
- One in the eighth: Giménez (him again?) led off with a double. Kirk singled to right to give us runners on the corners. George Springer got the RBI single, ground through the left side of the infield. Ernie Clement singled to right to load the bases. But Davis Schneider hit a soft liner that Ernie Clement (at first base) figured would get over the second baseman. It didn’t, and he was doubled off first. Terrible base running. Alan Roden popped out to end the inning.
It would have been nice to score more, but our pitchers did a nice job. We had 10 hits and 3 walks. We were 6 for 13 with RISP (but many of them were singles). Giménez, Kirk and Springer had two hits each. Bichette (even with a hard line drive), Santander and Lukes had the 0 fors.
Giménez had the stolen base and was caught stealing. The caught stealing was a close call, he tried a ‘swim move’ but, even with a challenge, was out at second. It was very close, but I thought the call was right.
The bad part for those of us cheering for an Alberta boy is that Michael Soroka left the game with an injury. Not sure what it was, but he’s had very bad injury luck.
We had some nice defense. Vlad made a couple of nice plays at first base. And Davis made that nice catch.
On the bad side, Kirk had a couple of balls get past him that I figured he should have had.
Jays of the Day: Francis (.167 WPA) and Giménez (.156).
No one gets the Other Award. Bo had the low mark at -.064, but he hit the ball hard in a couple of his at bats.
Tomorrow, we have Jose Berrios (who is hoping to prove that his opening-day start was just bad luck) and Trevor Williams, who is making his first start of the year.
Jays are 3-2 now.