Blue Jays 5 Cubs 6 (10 innings)
Jays, if you are going to tie it after I have written the recap, you piss me off when you lose it.
What a great top of the ninth:
- Alejandro Kirk started it with a single.
- Wil Wagner followed with a single (tying run at the plate).
- Ernie Clement lined to third, it should have been an easy catch, but it went off Isaac Paredes’s glove. Unfortunately, Kirk had to go back to second. With it missed, it was an easy 6-5 out (it would have been an out with anyone running).
- Joey Loperfido singled, and we loaded the bases. Tying run at first.
- Leo Jiménez looked like he had struck out, but the third base umpire called a balk, brought in a run and moved the tying run to second. But then he struck out a couple of pitches later.
- George Springer tripled to tie the game. And Tom had to rewrite the recap.
- Unfortunately, Daulton Varsho struck out to end the inning.
Tie game.
Genesis Cabrera came in for the bottom ninth. He got a strikeout, flyout deep to right (scared me for a moment), and a popup that Vlad caught reaching over the railing of the Jays dugout.
Extras:
Top of the tenth. Varsho on second:
- Vlad up, and they pitched to him. He hit one to deep left, but not quite deep enough. I thought Varsho should have tagged, but he likely knows better.
- Spencer Horwitz flied out to medium center (if Varsho was on third, he would have scored).
- Kirk ground out.
Bottom of the tenth. Happ at second. Chad Green in to pitch.
- Michael Busch took a seven-pitch walk (that pitch was called a strike several times today).
- Seiya Suzuki singled, and that was the game.
Generally, if you hold a team to seven hits in ten innings, things will turn out well. But when four of those six hits are home runs? Well, it’s less good.
Yariel Rodríguez was pretty good, minus three home runs allowed. 5 innings, 4 hits, 4 earned, 5 strikeouts. But the three home runs cost him and us.
Brendon Little gave up the other home run (crushed; Ian Happ hit the ball 473 feet).
Tommy Nance and Erik Swanson threw a scoreless inning each, as did Cabrera in the ninth.
Green? Well, you know….
We had ten hits. Ernie Clement (wearing a mic, and getting an RBI), Alejandro Kirk and Will Wagner had two.
Leo Jiménez homered.
It was one of those rare days that Vlad went hitless (the only Jay to be hitless). He came close to a homer in the tenth.
With the two hits, Wagner’s average dropped to .583 with a 1.416 OPS. He also had the first error of his career, booting a ball that he went for on the shortstop side of second. Challenging play, but it was an error.
Jays of the Day: Springer (.277 WPA), Cabrera (.138) and Wagner (.098, three games and three JoDs).
Other Award: Rodriguez (-.253), Vlad (-.198), Green (-.198), Varsho (-.142), and Horwitz (-.125, the Apple announcer called him Horowitz several times, of course, I’ve typed it that way many times)
Tomoorow we have another afternoon game, but not on Apple.