Jose Bautista’s suspension didn’t matter, as another visit from old friend Joe Kelly had the Jays’ hitters in good spirits: they struck early and traded runs with the Red Sox before holding on for a 7-5 victory. Kelly was his usual inconsistent self, which the Jays took advantage of, getting nine hits and five runs in just under five innings. He left trailing, and the Sox rallied off Aaron Sanchez and Joe Biagini to tie it, but Josh Donaldson gave them the lead back, hitting a late home run off Koji Uehara.
Sanchez was mostly good, though he was victimized by some bad luck on his gruond balls and occasional misplays on defense. He allowed four runs, three of them earned over six-and-two-thirds innings, striking out five. He seemed to run out of gas in the seventh inning, though Joe Biagini came in, and- amazingly- stranded the runner on second base. Though Biagini, too, got let down by his defense (as we will review shortly), but after Donaldson’s dinger gave the Jays back the lead, Roberto Osuna came in and locked down his eleventh save.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
Josh Donaldson kept coming up with runners on in this game, and he delivered almost every time. With the game tied 5-5 in the eighth inning, he came up and hit a home run just over the right field foul pole, giving the Jays a 7-5 lead. The final at-bat in Donaldson’s incredible game increased the Jays’ chances to win by 27.1%.
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
Jays starter Aaron Sanchez first ran into trouble in the fourth inning, allowing three straight singles and a walk, which tied the score at 2-2. With 1 out and the bases loaded, Red Sox third baseman Marco Hernandez hit an absolute rocket, but right to Donaldson, who alertly threw it to second to make it a double play. This defensive gem stifled a potentially huge inning for the Red Sox, and lowered their chance to win by 17.7%.
Donaldson Gets it Done
The reigning American League MVP had quietly struggled through the majority of May, with a slash line of .183/.293/.326 coming into the game. Whether it was the dome opening, or Joe Kelly taking the mound for the Red Sox, Donaldson had a fantastic night, going 4 for 5 with two home runs and a double, notching 5 RBIs in total. Because Donaldson came to the plate four times with the Jays’ tied, his four successful at-bats gave him a total WPA of 60.8% for the game.
Defensive Miscues
There were three visible misplays from the Blue Jays’ defense in this game. In the second inning, it was a throwing error from Troy Tulowitzki that got Travis Shaw on base, and he eventually scored that inning without the Red Sox getting a hit. Left fielder Michael Saunders was involved in two miscues. The first was in the fourth inning: with a runner on first base, Shaw hit a single to left, and Saunders tried to throw Xander Bogaerts out at third. This allowed Shaw to advance to second, rather than keeping the double play in order. Saunders was part of a worse sequence in the eighth, when he and Kevin Pillar let a fly ball drop between them in left-centre field, and a sure out turned into a free double.
Up Next
Tomorrow’s day game is at 1:07 PM ET, and the Jays will send Marcus Stroman (5-1, 3.89 ERA) to the mound. Rick Porcello (7-2, 3.47 ERA) will start for the Red Sox. This will be Porcello’s third start against the Jays, and he’s had a minimum of six innings, three runs allowed, and seven strikeouts in each of his outings against Toronto so far. Stroman lost his lone start against Boston this year, getting tagged for five runs in an eventual 8-7 loss.
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