That ended badly, Jays lose to Indians

Blue Jays 2 Indians 3

Well that was just bad luck, plus, yet again, not enough offense.

2 outs in the 8th, Brett Cecil gets the nice, easy ground ball right at Ryan Goins, but it takes a bad hop and the Indians get a runner on. Then Jose Ramirez hits one into the left field stands.

Marcus Stroman was terrific. 7.1 innings, 7 hits (all singles) , 1 walk and 9 strikeouts. Just the one earned run, in the only inning he had any real troubles. 3 straight ground ball singles, to start the 6th, scored the run again him. Next ground ball was, thankfully, at a fielder and we got a double play. A strikeout later, he was out of the inning.

Marcus did allow the leadoff hitter to reach in 4 of his seven innings, but, with the help of 3 double play balls, only one of those runners scored.

On offense....we didn’t do enough. 7 hits, 7 walks, 13 strikeouts. We should have scored more.

Melvin Upton hit a solo homer, in the 3rd inning. An out later, Ryan Goins walked, but was thrown out ‘stealing’ on a hit and run that didn’t include the hit part, Travis swung through the pitch. Of course, the next pitch, he hit a double to the right field corner. Josh Donaldson scored him with a single, but it could have been a better inning.

We had a shot in the 9th, Donaldson took a 2-out walk and then Edwin Encarnacion did the same, bringing up Russell Martin who has been very hot. Until today, when he went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts before his 9th inning at bat. He got to a full count before lining out to right.

Jays of the Day: Stroman (.392 WPA) and Donaldson (.137).

Suckage: Cecil (-.612, hardly fair because he got the ground ball to get out of the inning, but then.....that home run was crushed), Martin (-.224) and Ezequiel Carrera (-.092 for an 0 for 4).

There was a strange moment. In the the 7th, with Edwin up and the bases loaded, the Indian’s catcher, Roberto Perez got into a little back and forth with Edwin. When Edwin got back in the box, the plate umpire was clearly calling time, giving him time to get back in the box. But, Indians reliever Mike Clevinger started his motion anyway and, the third base ump called balk. His windup was clearly a balk. But.....since time was called, it didn’t count.

Both managers came out to complain, but what got me was the umpires talked to Clevinger to explain what he was doing that was a balk. I thought that was unfair because a) they let him get away with that on the pitch before and b) when they called it it was erased by the time out.

I was pissed off enough that Perez choose to get into Edwin’s face about, well, I’m not sure what. Edwin might have been pointing out the balk on the pitch before.

After it was all over Edwin was called out on a pitch that was down and away and off the plate, but that’s the type of strike zone it had been all game.

Tomorrow the Jays have an off-day, to let them celebrate my wife’s birthday. Then we have the Angels.

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