With an offense that has under-performed for the majority of the year, especially in recent weeks, a blowout wasn’t something people were anticipating from this game. But the Jays got one, piling on the runs in a huge fourth inning, eventually winning 10-2 over the Mariners.
Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma started out well enough, though some of his outs were loud, with Edwin Encarnacion taking him right to the wall in the first inning. It was shaping up to be a familiar frustration for Jays fans: Runners stranded, hard hit balls finding gloves, and Iwakuma dancing his way in and out of trouble. Until the fourth inning, when the Jays exploded for eight runs, chasing Iwakuma from the game. His final line was 3 and 1/3 innings pitched, 8 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts.
J.A. Happ has had great run support for a lot of the season in addition to being really good, and both of those things happened tonight. Though the line wasn’t impressive, it didn’t tell the story of Happ’s performance. The runs were almost entirely a result of poor defense (more on that below). Though he only went five innings, the only hard-hit balls came in his last inning, when his pitch count had been run up because of (again) that longer third inning. His final line was 5 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs and 2 walks, striking out 8 batters. With a large lead, the Jays were able to save their better relievers, as Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera, Brett Cecil, and Scott Feldman finished up the game without a whole lot of action.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
With the Jays having already plated two runs in the fourth inning, Saunders came to the plate with Tulowitzki on base. Saunders promptly launched a moonshot to left field, giving the Jays a 4-2 lead. Breaking the tie added 22.9 percentage points to the Jays’ chances to win, and gave them a lead they would not relinquish.
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
With two runners on in the third inning and one out, Franklin Gutierrez strode to the plate with a chance to get the Mariners on the board. Happ struck him out. Though Robinson Cano did drive those runners in immediately after, Gutierrez’s strike out lowered the Mariners’ chances to win by 8.9 percentage points.
You Get a Hit! And You Get a Hit! Everyone Gets a Hit!
The Blue Jays lineup kept moving in the fourth inning, in an offensive eruption that has been so foreign of late. Nine consecutive hitters reached base, and it was at least partially because of a stroke of luck: Jose Bautista hit a pop-up that Chris Ianetta misplayed, and Bautista eventually singled. The next eight hitters did this: Home run, single, home run, double, single, single, walk, double. Iwakuma and two relievers couldn’t stem the tide, as the Jays notched eight runs, recovering the lead from the Mariners and then some. All nine Jays regulars finished the game with a hit and a run scored.
Travis’ Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Half Inning
Though the Jays’ second baseman has been one of the few offensive bright spots in September, he had a forgettable stretch on defense tonight. He misplayed a routine ground ball from Guillermo Heredia in the third inning, dropping the ball as he attempted to turn a double play, ending up with two runners on and just one out instead. Two batters later, Travis had another grounder from Cano carom off his legs into foul territory short of the right fielder, and Cano ended up on third. Both of these should have been errors, but weren’t scored as such. If this had happened on a night the Jays didn’t score a bunch of runs (almost any other game in September), it would have been more of a problem, though now it just stands out as a wart on an otherwise excellent game for the boys in blue. Travis did field several balls over the final few innings without incident.
More Dingers, Please
The Jays’ trademark in 2015 was home runs, and those have mostly disappeared in a light-hitting September, with the Jays slugging a piddling .341 prior to tonight’s game. As encouraging as the runs was seeing two Jays in particular going deep: Michael Saunders, and Josh Donaldson, in a park that’s not especially kind to hitters. With a total of four home runs on the night, let’s hope the Jays continue to flash the power in the remaining games, easing the pressure on a pitching staff that’s usually held up their end of the bargain this season.
Up Next
It’s an afternoon game tomorrow to close it up, as the Jays will be back at Safeco Field at 3:40 PM ET. Aaron Sanchez (13-2, 3.17 ERA) will start for the Jays, while Felix Hernandez (11-6, 3.79) goes for the Mariners. This King Felix that goes tomorrow might be a different one than Jays fans are used to seeing: he’s struggled of late, giving up 6 runs in 3 of his last 4 starts. Sanchez is looking to rebound from a bad start himself, where he only went 3 and 2/3 innings and allowed 6 runs against the Red Sox in an 11-8 loss.
The Red Sox won their sixth game in a row tonight, beating the Orioles 5-2. The good news for the Jays is that they’re now a game ahead of the Orioles for the wildcard, the bad news is they remain four games out of the division lead behind the Sox.
Lead Photo: Joe Nicholson – USA Today Sports