Jays Beat Reds

Jays 12 Reds 9

So when we scored eight runs in the first two innings, I was thinking it was going to be a blowout. But no.

The Reds had a five-run second and it was game on.

Anyway…. we scored:

• Four in the first: George Springer started the game with his 25th home run of the season. With one out, Vladimir Guerrero, Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho walked. Then Alejandro Kirk what originally looked to be a triple, driving in two, but, after a challenge, it was clear that Kirk was tagged out at third. Too bad, any season that has a Kirk steal and triple has to be a good season. I’ll admit, I love Springer in the leadoff spot. He seems to bring a great deal of energy to the team. The starter idea didn’t work out for the Reds.
• Four in the second: Andrés Giménez started it off with a single. After a IKF force out, Springer singled. Nathan Lukes, bunting (why would you bunt in the second inning with a nice lead I’ll never understand, just dumb baseball), popped it to the pitcher. Vlad singled, driving in one. And Bo homered driving in three more.
• Two in the fourth: IKF (more on him later) put his elbow in the way of a pitch. I really don’t think you should get a hit by pitch if you move into the ball, but such is baseball. And Springer homered for the second time today. That got us to 10 runs.
• One in the seventh: Varsho homered.
• One in the ninth: Vlad singled to lead off. A wild pitch got him to second. Bo struck out, Varsho popped out. Then Vlad stole third. That had me wondering how many beers I had, but yes he stole third. Kirk walked. Then Vlad scored on a passed ball—our 12th run. We are living in a world where Kirk has a stolen base and Vlad has a steal of third. At the time I thought it was an important run.

The Jays had 12 hits, including four home runs and 5 walks. Springer and Vlad had three. Kirk had two. Lukes, Schneider and IKF had 0 fors.

Jose Berrios was not good. He gave up a run in the first and then five in the second (only one of those earned, an IKF error, with two outs, allowing four runs to score). Kiner-Falefa had a terrible day with the glove. One official error, but two other plays that really should have been errors. If he had made a good throw to first, Berrios would have gotten us more than two inning.

• Dillon Tate pitched a scoreless third.
• Eric Lauer gave up 2 earned on 5 hits in 2.1 innings. He was pretty lucky just to give up the two runs.
• Louis Varland got the last two outs of the sixth and all three outs of the seventh without allow more runs.
• Seranthony Domínguez gave up a home run in the eighth, making it a two-run game for a moment.
• Jeff Hoffman gave up a single in the ninth, but got out of the inning. I thought the single should have been an IKF error. That’s Hoffman’s 30th save of the season.

Kiner-Falefa had a terrible day with the glove. I thought he had three errors (officially one). With his bat, he had to make the plays. Maybe, because I don’t like us signing him, I’m being overly critical of him, but it was a bad day.

Umpires had a bad day too. There were two calls overturned on appeal, one for each team, and the plate umpire thought that the outside of the plate extended an extra three or fourth inches.

Vlad had a terrific play at first base.

Jays of the Day: Springer (.240 WPA), Vlad (.144, 3 hits and a walk, none of the three hits were particularly hard hit balls, his one out was 107 mph), Kirk (.121), Varsho (.108) and Varland (.103) and Bo (.089).

Other Award: Berrios (-.257, it would have been much better without the IKF error, but he wasn’t good), and Lukes (-.082, on an 0 for 4). Let’s give one to IKF too.

Tomorrow we have the rubber match of the series. Shane Bieber (1-1, 2.38) vs. Zack Littell (9-8, 3.63). It is another 6:40 start time, just to mess me up.

Tom M and I had a nice evening. There may have been a few beers, but also chicken wings and pizza. Which, with a Jays win, makes for a nice evening.