The Jays came into the week again at a .500 record, but were looking to ride off the high of a Bo Bichette walk off Home Run to give them their second consecutive series win against divisional Rivals New York Yankees. This past week focused largely on a four game set against the Kansas City Royals, before a pit stop in Boston for a two game series with the Red Sox.
Toronto have dealt with a TON of injuries so far this season, here is the Jays injury report:
Game 1: Jays 5 – 7 Royals
The Blue Jays came out a bit flat to start this series, and the Royals took advantage of that. Kansas City put up 7 runs on the Jays through the first 4 innings, chasing starting pitcher Anthony Kay after only 3 1/3. Jakob Junis shutout the Jays through 5 innings, before running into trouble in the 6th. Toronto was able to bring 4 around, in the 6th inning, and another run in the 7th, but that’s where the comeback fell short, and the Royals took game one 7-5.
Game 2: Jays 5 – 1 Royals (7 innings- first game of double header)
The story of this game, was once again Jays starter Steven Matz. Matz went 6 very strong innings including not giving up a hit until the 6th inning. After this game, Matz’ ERA now sits at 1.47 on the year. Lourdes Gurriel Jr got the Jays to a good start with a 2-run double in the first, then Jonathan Davis and Vladimir Guerrero Jr followed that up with solo HR’s to seal it for the Blue Jays.
Game 3: Jays 2 – 3 Royals (7 innings- second game of double header)
After the Jays took first game of the day rather easily, the night game was much closer. The Jays would take the lead in the 2nd when Alejandro Kirk would double with two outs and Josh Palacios would come around to score. The Royals would answer back in the 3rd when Andrew Benintendi would hit a laser at Rowdy Tellez who fielded the ball cleanly, but threw the ball into the dirt allowing Jarrod Dyson to score. Carlos Santana would then knock in Benintendi from 2nd giving the Royals a 2-1 lead. The Jays would tie it up on a sac fly from Gurriel Jr, but that would only set the stage for Salvador Perez to hit a huge walk off HR to give the Royals the win.
Game 4: Jays 0 – 2 Royals
The series finale of this one was short and sweet. Brady Singer put in masterful performance, going 6 innings, giving up just 2 hits while not allowing a run. Robbie Ray went 5 innings of shutout baseball as well, but his outing was more adventurous — giving 4 hits while walking 6! Salvador Perez would homer for the second straight game, and the Royals bullpen would do the rest as the Jays could manage a total of 2 hits for the game.
Jays Series Standout:
Even though Vladdy did homer twice, I’m going with Steven Matz again. His ERA has him in the top 10 in the league and so far the Jays are 3-0 when he takes the mound.
Game 1: Jays 2 – 4 Red Sox
The mini two game set in Boston didn’t start the way the blue birds wanted either. Even though Bo Bichette launched his 5th HR of the season into the Boston night sky in the top half of the 4th inning, the Red Sox would answer right back in the bottom of the 4th with a 4 run inning of their own, highlighted by a 3-run home run from Xander Bogaerts. Those 4 runs would be enough as a Randal Grichuk solo shot in the 7th inning is all the Jays could manage of Eduardo Rodriguez, and the rest of the Red Sox bullpen.
Game 2: Jays 6 – 3 Red Sox
The Jays would even the series in game 2 by doing a great job manufacturing runs and coming up with big hits with runners on base. Leaving runners on base has been the biggest issue of this young season for the Jays, so it was nice to see a good team win, and start cashing in with men on base. Bo, Vladdy and Randal all had multi hit games, and each recording an RBI, while Ryan Borucki recording his second 2nd win of the year out of the bullpen.
Jays Series Standout:
Bo Bichette gets the shoutout for this series as he had that monster home run in game 1 and had a nice game as well in game 2.
So the good news is, the Blue Jays still are yet to drop a series to a divisional opponent, but they need to start hitting more consistently. Toronto now has Tampa Bay to look forward to in a 3 game set over the weekend before an inter-league match up against the Washington Nationals, which will be another 2 game series.
You can catch every inning of Toronto Blue Jays baseball on Rogers Sportsnet, and check in here weekly at Hot Sauce Sports for the breakdown.
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