After a Saturday slug fest and a Sunday extra inning game, the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen was tired and needed a quality start from tonight’s starter Marco Estrada. He gave them exactly what they needed, throwing eight excellent innings, giving up no runs, three hits, three walks and six strike outs. The biggest threat came in the eighth inning with two out and runners on second and third, but he got Jacoby Ellsbury to pop out to end the inning. Estrada lowered his team leading ERA to 2.43.
We think of Marco Estrada as a fly ball pitcher, but tonight he got 10 ground ball outs, 6 Ks, 4 pop ups, 4 fly balls #BlueJays
— Ben Nicholson-Smith (@bnicholsonsmith) May 31, 2016
The offense strung together a bunch of hits, including a Ryan Goins home run, to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead. However, in the ninth inning the bullpen made the game interesting. Aaron Loup, in his second game since returning from the disabled list, gave up a one out two-run homer to Brain McCann, making way for Drew Storen to come in to the game. He immediately gave up a double (that was misplayed by right fielder Jose Bautista) to Mark Texeira. With tensions high, and men warming in the bullpen, Storen was able to retire the next two batters to preserve the win and pick up his third save. Manager John Gibbons would welcome seeing more performances like that from Storen as he tries to find late inning solutions to the bullpen.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
In the bottom of the first, with one out, Edwin Encarnacion hammered a 2-2 Ivan Nova pitch to deep centre field to drive in Donaldson with the first run of the game. It would increase their win expectancy by 11.4 percentage points.
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
Down 3-0, Carlos Beltran lead off the top of the fourth with a single. Brain McCann stepped to the plate and two pitches later hit into a 3-6-3 double play to put an end to the threat. This resulted in a 7.4 percentage point drop in win expectancy.
Ryan Goins
Ryan Goins was inserted into the lineup at shortstop to give Devon Travis, who had just returned from injury, a night off. Prior to the game, manager John Gibbons announced that going forward Darwin Barney would be getting regular playing time, with Troy Tulowitzki on the disabled list, and Goins would be the backup infielder. The rationale behind the move was “going with the hot hand”. Goins responded with a double in the second and an opposite field home run in the fifth. In the end it doesn’t matter why Goins ended up having a successful game, be it motivation or just lack of execution on Nova’s part, it was Goin’s best offensive game of the season and the Jays will welcome anything close to that type of contribution from their bench.
Gibbons on Goins: "I told him, 'Hey, Barney has been swinging it. I'm going to ride him. Just stay ready." #BlueJays
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) May 30, 2016
Up Next
#BlueJays are looking to win their fifth consecutive series vs #Yankees, which is something they have not done since 1992-93.
— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) May 30, 2016
The Blue Jays will try to continue their success against the Yankees tomorrow night at 7:05 PM eastern. It will be the lefty rematch , as J.A. Happ (6-2, 3.20) will face Yankees hurler C.C. Sabathia (3-3, 2.83).
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