The Blue Jays tagged Arizona players all afternoon long, scoring 10 times in a 10-4 rout of the D-Backs at Chase Field. The scoring started early, as the Jays took advantage of a struggling Patrick Corbin, tagging him for six runs in 5 2/3 innings of work. Josh Donaldson and Darwin Barney lead the charge, driving in three runs apiece, while Edwin Encarnacion hit his 26th home run of the season. Marcus Stroman turned in a strong start as he works to rebound from a difficult first half. Stroman pitched eight innings allowing one run on eights hits, seeing his ERA dip to under 5.00 for the season (4.90). While Brett Cecil would surrender a three-run homer in the ninth, the nine-run lead was more than enough cushion for the Blue Jays’ bullpen. The win gave the Jays a sweep of the two game miniseries and a 3-2 record on their five game west coast road trip.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
Josh Donaldson staked the Blue Jays to a 2-0 lead in the first inning that they would never relinquish, hitting a two-run homer run off of Patrick Corbin. Darwin Barney, who reached base when Jean Segura misplayed groundball to begin the game, came around to score on the Donaldson homer. The play increased the Blue Jays’ chances of winning the game by 12.8 percentage points.
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
With one out and two on in the bottom of the third inning, Arizona cleanup hitter Jake Lamb came to the plate. Marcus Stroman was able to induce a double play groundball that not only killed the D-Back’s rally but decreased their chances of winning by a game low 10.4 percentage points.
Barney Makes His Outfield Debut
This afternoon marked Darwin Barney’s first start in the outfield as a professional baseball player. The Blue Jays were playing short-staffed with Ezequiel Carrera forced out of the lineup due to a flare up of his achilles injury, and Michael Saunders away from the team to tend to a personal matter. Barney was tested early, tracking a ball off the bat of Yasmany Tomas all the way to the left field wall in the bottom of the second inning. While neither Carrera’s injury or Saunders’ absence appear to be long term, the Blue Jays appear to be very flexible with how they use their bench players. Barney joins fellow lifelong infielder Ryan Goins as Blue Jays who have seen time in the outfield this season.
Stroman and Infield Defense: Better Together.
Marcus Stroman’s strong performance this afternoon saw Stro doing what he does best – keeping the ball down and generating ground balls. Stroman generated 12 ground ball outs and kept 78.3% of all balls put in play on the ground this afternoon. When Stroman is generating grounders like he was today, it becomes very apparent just how great the Jays’ infield defense is – both Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki made strong plays in support of Stroman this afternoon. Groundball pitching only works if you’re able to successfully convert those bad boys into outs, and the Jays’ infielders have excelled at just that this season.
Josh Donaldson: So Good He’s Boring
Josh Donaldson continues to do Josh Donaldson-like things. The scary thing is that we may be getting so used to his MVP-caliber production that we barely even notice it. Donaldson came into the game slashing .306/.418/.589 on the season; which is an improvement on his award winning 2015. Some have said that Mike Trout suffers from a similar condition – he has been so good for so long we almost take it for granted. Don’t let it happen with JD too.
Up Next
The Blue Jays will enjoy a travel/off day tomorrow before opening up a weekend series against the Seattle Mariners on Friday at the Rogers Centre. The series with Seattle will mark the beginning of a nine-game home stand in which the Jays will face the Mariners, Padres and Orioles. Marco Estrada (5-3, 2.93 ERA) is scheduled to make his second half debut on Friday night when he faces off against James Paxton (2-4, 4.56 ERA) and his newly discovered 95 mph fastball.
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