I often think a good start by one pitcher leads to a good start by the next. Kevin Gausman was amazing last night. Chris Bassitt was good, until coming out of the game with what I’m expecting will be back tightness. Chris went 5 innings, allowed just 2 hits, 1 walks with 6 strikeouts and just the one run (off a double to lead off the third and a one out single). It is too bad he had to leave the game.
A lot of starters came out of games tonight, including Trevor Story from the Orioles.
On offense we had a pretty good day, scoring:
We had 10 hits, with 6 walks. Orioles starter Trevor Rogers set a season high in walks with 4. He came out of the game with some sort of issue.
Vlad had 3 hits. IKF and Straw had 2 each. Schneider (with a walk), Kirk, France and Gimenez had 0 fors. Kirk’s going through a rough stretch, but then he’s been terrific behind the plate, so I’m ok with it.
Jays of the Day: Vlad (.223 WPA, 3 hits, 2 walks), Straw (.219, 2 hits, 1 walk), Varland (.201) and Bassitt (.130, I’m hoping the injury isn’t serious).
I saw a comment that Vlad has no situational awareness. Apparently, throwing Altuve out at third in extras, helping get us out of the inning without a run scoring and then busting it down to first in the bottom of the inning doesn’t show awareness.
Other Award: Kirk (-.192) and Gimenez (-.116), who looked fine a short, not that he had any tough plays.
Everything worked well today. Let’s have more of that tomorrow when we have game two of the series. Tomoyuki Sugano (10-8, 4.51) vs. Max Scherzer (5-3, 4.36). It is a 3:00 Eastern start.