One Bad Inning Causes A Jays’ Loss

Blue Jays 4 Brewers 5

I was talking about boring baseball games, well, this was one of them. At least until the ninth.

Davis Schneider homered in the first. From then until the ninth, we managed just two hits. Both infield hits.

That Schneider home run held us the lead until the sixth inning.

Chris Bassitt pitched his way into and out of trouble for five innings. He gave up 5 hits and 4 walks, with 5 strikeouts, but managed to keep the Brewers off the scoreboard. I’m unsure if he was good or just lucky, but it worked.

Unfortunately, after those five innings, he was at 100 pitches after all those walks and seemed to go to a full count on most batters.

Zach Pop didn’t have the same luck in the sixth. He got two quick outs and then gave up a walk and a single to put runners on the corners.

The Brewers went for the steal of second and, if they throw, send the runner from third. Well, Kirk threw to second, with the idea that IKF would throw back home to get the runner at the plate. But Kirk’s throw was short and bounced away from Isiah. Allowing the tying run to score. I don’t know. With two outs, just letting them have second base might be the better plan. It’s easy to say when it fails, but it has to be perfect to work.

It went downhill from there. Another single made it 2-1 Brewers. That brought Tim Mayza in.

A steal and a single, and it was 3-1. And a Willy Adams home run made it 5-1.

After that, Trevor Richards and Brendon Little gave us a scoreless inning each.

The top of the ninth was interesting.

• Ernie Clement started it off with a double.
• Spencer singled him home. 5-2.
• Schneider singled to bring the tying run to the plate.
• A wild pitch took away the double-play chance.
• Bo Bichette singled home one. 5-3.
• Danny Jansen walked.
• Springer up, he strikes out on three pitches. Just an awful at-bat when we needed something. That was a huge at-bat.
• Alejandro Kirk hits one to the track in center. 100.5 mph, 398 feet. .610 expected BA. Home runs in 6 of 30 ballparks. It brings in a run. 5-4.
• Vladimir Guerrero comes in to pinch hit. On the second pitch, he hits almost the same fly ball as Kirk, but not out of the park again. 98.6 mph, 383 feet. .390 expected BA. Game over.

At least the ninth was exciting. We managed 7 hits. Two each for Horwitz, Schneider and Clement. One for Bo.

Clement was also picked off first base. A play that the Jays were too slow to ask for a challenge. I doubt they would have overturned it.

Jays of the Day: Bassitt (.308 WPA), Schneider (.140) and Jansen (.115).

The Other Award: Pop (-.317), Mayza (-.226), Springer (-.228, for an 0 for 4, 2 k), Kirk (-.168, 0 for 3, walk, k. Ten more feet on that fly and he is a JoD), Vlad (-.165 for his 0 for 1).

Tomorrow’s an off-day.