After a weekend filled with home runs and leaping grabs, the Blue Jays sent R.A Dickey to the mound to face off against Jerad Eickhoff in the first of two games in Toronto against the Phillies. Jose Bautista was back in the lineup tonight after missing the last three games against the Orioles with a hip flexor strain, but the Blue Jays offense lacked the urgency and spark they displayed on the weekend. Dickey didn’t have his best stuff tonight, and had to mix in his fastball more than he would have liked, but he managed to work through 6.1 innings. He battled, and gave up 5 hits, and just two runs both on solo home runs, one in the third inning and one in the seventh. Things didn’t get better for the Blue Jays after Dickey exited the game. Joe Biagini came into the game after Dickey, and Peter Bourjos hit a ground rule double which allowed Cody Asche to score, which pushed the Phillies ahead 3-0. Odubel Herrera then singled and scored Bourjos to extend the lead to 4-0. Scott Diamond pitched the 8th in his Blue Jays debut, and allowed three runs in a disaster of an inning. After tonight, the Blue Jays bullpen has allowed 38 inherited runners to score. The Blue Jays left nine runners on base tonight, and couldn’t find a way to score against the Phillies.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
On a 2-0 count in the 7th inning, Ryan Howard, who is hitting just .154 on the season, took Dickey over the wall in right field to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead (+.124).
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
In the 8th inning with no outs and runners on first and second, Kevin Pillar grounded into a double play to third, which erased Michael Saunders at third and left Justin Smoak at second base dropping the Blue Jays already low chances of winning by another (-.097)
Trend to Watch
In the month of June Michael Saunders is earning his time in left field, hitting .405 with a .452 OBP while slugging .757. In that time he’s got 5 doubles, 1 triple, and 2 homeruns.
Also, as a certain tweeter tells us, he’s been great from the 7th inning on.
Mentioned it before, Saunders is having the greatest late inning performance in MLB history. Long way to go though. https://t.co/HiEOVXD7Xg
— James G (@james_in_to) June 12, 2016
Up Next
Marcus Stroman takes the hill tomorrow hoping to get back on track after some less than impressive starts of late. He will face Zac Eflin in his Major League debut for the Phillies. First pitch flies at 12:37 pm at Rogers Center.
Lead Photo – Dan Hamilton – © USA TODAY Sports Images