Sometimes baseball is heartbreaking, and sometimes it provides extreme, uplifting joy. This one did a little of both, depending on your side of the aisle.
The seesaw battle saw the Blue Jays jump out early, putting up three runs in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead. They were unable to hold the lead, as the potent Red Sox offense pounded away at Marcus Stroman, putting up seven runs off the righthander in 5.1 innings of work. The Red Sox knocked out 11 hits, including two home runs and five doubles. The Duke grad just didn’t have it today. Porcello wasn’t exactly perfect, as he did allow four runs in 6.1 innings, but he only walked one batter, struck out five, and got out of some big jams with key double plays. He also wasn’t helped by some calls by the umpire in that three run third inning, so probably deserved a slightly better fate.
Jesse Chavez would give up another run to make it 8-4, and things looked bleak. However, Aaron Loup and Drew Storen managed to hold the Red Sox at bay, and the Blue Jays offense woke up against Tommy Layne and Junichi Tazawa (as they are wont to do), with three runs to make the score 8-7. Craig Kimbrel relieved Tazawa with a runner at third and one out and managed to strike out Pillar, but Jose Bautista was able to punch a ball through the right side to tie the game up at eight.
It looked to be all for naught, as David Ortiz took Gavin Floyd deep with one out in the 9th to put the Red Sox back on top, but Kimbrel wasn’t able to close the game out. After a single by Smoak, Ezequiel Carrera (pinch runner) stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by Christian Vazquez. Russell Martin then lined a ball into the gap for a game-tying double. After Martin moved up on a wild pitch, Devon Travis had an infield single to win the game in walkoff fashion in the bottom of the ninth. What a ball game.
The other way to sum up this affair would be just to post this:
Source: FanGraphs
Top Play of the Game by WPA
No surprise here. With the Blue Jays down 9-8 and two outs in the ninth, Russell Martin drove a double into the gap to tie the game up and put himself into scoring position. The big time drive increased the Blue Jays odds of winning by 44.6 percent (.446 WPA). For reference, Travis’ infield single also had a huge impact, checking in with a WPA of .373.
The Ortiz homer increased the Red Sox odds of winning by 38.1 percent (WPA of .381).
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
With the Blue Jays down by one run and Devon Travis on third base, Kimbrel came in to face Kevin Pillar in the eighth inning. He managed to strike him out for the second out of the inning and force the Blue Jays to get a hit to tie the game. The punch out lowered the Jays chances of winning the game by 17.4 percent (-.174 WPA).
A Taste of 2015
Blue Jays fans got a glimpse of what made this team so exciting in 2015, as the Blue Jays offense finally bailed out the pitching staff. Despite being down four runs heading into the eighth inning, the once high powered offense roared back to tie it against a trio of late inning relievers. Then after going down in the ninth, they roared back yet again scoring two runs against arguably the very best closer in baseball to walk it off. This is exactly what fans, players, and the front office have been looking for from this lineup.
Marcus Misfires
Marcus Stroman doesn’t miss a lot of bats. That’s not really a huge secret at this point, as he leads the league in groundball rate. Unfortunately, because of this issue, he really needs to work at the bottom of the zone. When he is elevating the ball as he was today, he ends up getting hit very hard. When you add in a potent Red Sox offense, it can (and did) lead to disaster. His ERA on the season has now fallen to a season-worst 4.46.
The Blue Jays are going to have to work on a way to help Stroman through starts where he doesn’t have his best location. Whether that’s throwing more elevated fastballs or more breaking balls, something needs to be done or these types of outings will be more common.
Hungry Like a Wolf (Loup)
Aaron Loup made his return to the big leagues, following an injury suffered during spring training. The Jays have been in search of another for much of the season, as Brett Cecil and Franklin Morales are sitting on the disabled list, and Pat Venditte just couldn’t get it done. Loup wasn’t throwing all that hard in this game (sitting 88-92), but he struck out both lefties he faced with relative ease and helped keep the score close. His return could be a real boon to a beleaguered bullpen unit.
Up Next
Tomorrow’s day game is at 1:07 PM ET, and the Jays will send R.A. Dickey (2-6, 4.60 ERA) to the mound in an attempt to complete the series sweep. His opponent will be none other than former Blue Jay, David Price (7-1, 5.34 ERA), making his first start in Toronto since last year’s magical run. Look for the stadium to be buzzing. Price has faced Toronto once this year, going seven strong innings and striking out nine and allowing just two runs. Dickey will be making his third appearance against the Red Sox, and has been beaten around a little bit in the first two.
Lead Photo: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports