Great start from Matz, Jays beat Royals - Bluebird Banter

Blue Jays 5 Royals 1

The thing about seven-inning games is I don’t know when to start on the recap.

Steven Matz was terrific again today. He didn’t give up a hit until the sixth inning. That was a single in front of Lourdes Gurriel. After a great catch in center, the Royals got their second hit of the game, a double over Gurriel’s head. A ball that major league left fielder should catch. That scored the Royal’s run. Santiago Espinal made a nice play on a grounder for the third out of the inning.

Rafael Dolis caused us to sweat in the seventh. He walked the leadoff hitter and then apparently hit the next batter. Couldn’t tell if it did on the replay. The next batter, Michael Taylor chased on the first pitch, which really helped out Dolis and then ground one to third. Santiago Espinal grabbed it, touched third, and threw to second for an unusual double. Semien thought about trying for the triple play, but they didn’t have a shot. A popout ended the inning.

And the offense showed up:

• Lourdes Gurriel hit a two-run double in the first inning, driving home Vlad and Randal.
• Jonathan Davis homered in the fifth, a solo homer, pulling it down the left-field line. His first hit of the season. The last player on the active roster to get a hit.
• Vladimir Guerrero homered in the sixth, his fourth home run of the season. Also, a solo shot.
• And one more in the seventh. Davis led off with a single, stole second, moved up to third on Danny Jansen’s deep fly, and scored on Marcus Semien’s sac fly.

We had 8 hits in the seven innings. Vlad, Jonathan, and Randal had two each. Marcus. Bo, Santiago, and Danny had 0 fors (Danny got robbed in the seventh, hitting one to the wall in left, about a foot higher it would have been over the wall, but Andrew Benintendi made a terrific catch), but I’m sure all would have hit one in the two missing innings.

Jays of the first half of the Day: Matz (.342 WPA), Gurriel (.189, though he should lose points for his defense), and I’m giving one to Davis for the home run, plus the great catch in CF and a steal. Espinal gets honorable mention for his defense.

No Suckage Jays. Kirk had the low mark at -.057, for a 1 for 3 days.

Game two is at 6:00 Eastern. We will have a fresh GameThread, with that wonderful new GameThread smell.

We had 653 comments in the GameThread (pretty good for seven innings, we’ll have to see if we can beat it in the second game). radivel and I led us to victory.

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2021-04-17 20:28:33Z
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