Blue Jays 7 Angels 2
It’s our third series sweep of the season. We should play the Angels more often, especially if Trout is hurt.
José Berríos had a great start, seven innings, just two hits (one a solo homer), just one walk and a hit batter, with five strikeouts.
He took a ball off his ankle in the third inning, and I figured he was going to leave the game, but he stayed in and didn’t miss a beat.
Our starting pitchers pitched 21 of 27 innings in this series and gave up two earned runs, both solo homers.
And the offense did the job again.
We only had eight hits, but six were for extra bases, including three home runs and six walks. We scored:
- Two in the second: Horwitz walked (against the lefty, and Ernic Clement followed with his seventh home run of the season.
- One in the third: Daulton Varsho doubled, and Vlad singled him home.
- Three in the fifth: Leo Jiménez and George Springer walked, and Daulton Varsho homered.
- One in the sixth: Ernie Clement tripled (a fly ball down the right field line, Randal Grichuk was playing towards center). Jiménez hit a popup just a little over the infield (169 feet), and Clement scored. With the second baseman running away from the plate, he made a poor throw home. Clement took a chance, and it worked.
- Two in the ninth: Varsho singled, and Vlad homered.
The eight hits came from three players. Varsho (homer, double, single) and Vlad (single, double, homer) had three hits, and Clement (homer, triple) had two.
There were a couple of bad moments:
- Vlad took off from second to third on a ball hit to short. He was out very easily. Just bad baseball.
- Clement threw well high from short for an error.
- Varsho had a ball go off his glove on a fly to deep center. It was not an easy play (for anyone else), but he was there in time and just had it go off his glove.
Brendon Little pitched the eighth, giving up a single and a walk before getting a double play and a ground out. Tommy Nance gave up the Angels’ second run in the ninth but finished off the game with a strikeout.
Jays of the Day: Berrios (.233 WPA), Clement (.183) and Varsho (.103). Honourable mention to Vlad for his three hits, plus starting a nifty 3-6-3 double play and making a nice grab on a Barger throw that was offline and bounced. Oh heck, let’s give him a JoD (we have some money in the budget).
No one gets the Other Award. Kirk had the low mark at -.046, for his 0 for 4, with a walk.
Tomorrow is an off-day, and on Friday, the Jays have an afternoon game (2:00 Eastern). It is one of those stupid Apple TV games. 0