Great start from Aaron Sanchez, Jays best Padres

Padres 2 Blue Jays 4

I’m going to be so sad if the Jays decide to move Aaron Sanchez into the bullpen. I so much like watching his starts. starts.

Tonight’s was terrific.

Aaron went 7 innings, allowed just 3 hits, 2 of them infield singles, the other a double. One of the infield singles wouldn’t have been a single if Aaron had gone to first base, but he chased after the ball (and amazingly got to it) but it would have been an easy play if he had gone to the bag. He gave up 2 walks, one that shouldn’t have been, but the umpire, early in the game, had a small strikezone (both ways). He also had 7 strikeouts and kept the ball in the infield most of the time.

Jason Grilli pitched a clean 8th inning (I’m loving him, great pickup Atkins). Bo Schultz gave up a leadoff double, to start the 9th and, 1 out later, gave up a massive home run, to someone named Alex Dickerson. That brought Roberto Osuna into the game. He got a pop out and a fly out to left, for his 21st save.

On offense, we did enough. 9 hits, 4 walks, no home runs, but 4 doubles (2 by Kevin Pillar), 1 for Devon Travis and 1 that Troy Tulowitzki hit off the top of the wall but it bounced back into play. And Michael Saunders hit a triple.

We scored:

• 1 in the 4th: Saunders tripled and Tulo hit a sac fly (I thought it was going out and then Russell Martin hit one that I was sure was going out, but was caught at the wall).
• 2 in the 5th: Pillar and Travis doubled. And, after a Jose Bautista walk, Josh Donaldson singled home Travis.
• 1 in the 8th: Doubled from Tulo and Pillar.

Jays of the Day: Sanchez (.376 WPA), Travis (.147) and Saunders (.098).

Suckage: Smoak had the number (-.116, for an 0 for 4). He also had the miscommunication with Sanchez on that infield single. He should have...and maybe was, telling Aaron to go to the bag. In reality, Sanchez should have just been running there, but communication would have helped.

Jose Bautista was 1 for 3 with a walk in his first game back.

And there is this rumor:

I’d love the deal....we could use a good defensive outfielder. Let Jose or Michael DH now and then.

We had 1207 comments in the GameThreads. DangYouToHeck led us to victory. Great job.