Game Day - April 13th ft. Blue Jays & Yankees
Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees
The Twins are giving a rude welcome to the Yankees rookie pitcher. They scored 7 runs off Brito in the first inning and chased the Yankee starter from the game. Welcome to the big leagues! The story of this game is going to be the test of how the Yankees play when they have to chase more than a run or two.
The score in this game after three out is 9-0 Twins. This feels weird to say when the Yankees are the zero, but……is this game over? The chase is on.
The chase never happened and the Yankees ended up losing 2-11. Good on the Twins for scoring a lot early and never letting the Yankees into the game. The good news for the Yankees is that this one is easy to write off and move on to the next one. Unlike the game the Jays are playing right now, the Yankees were not going to win this after the 1st inning. Go get ‘em tomorrow. That’s the beauty of baseball.
Detroit Tigers @ Toronto Blue Jays
After the first inning, I like what I see from Bassitt. I think this Tigers lineup is what he needs to get right in how flow and routine and take that into the tougher part of their schedule. I also like the Jays getting two runners on base in their half of the first inning but I don’t like this theme of the Jays allowing a team like the Tigers to hang around. We saw in the middle game of the series that a good pitching performance with zero run support can fall victim to the home run ball.
Big moments that don’t look like it. Vladdy is at the plate, there are two outs and a runner on third. The Jays are down a run and they are league-worst in hits with runners in scoring position and two outs. The setup has spoiled the ending, but Vladdy barrels a line drive up the middle for an rbi single. These are the little things a star player does and the little things the team needs to get in the habit of doing. The Rays play perfect baseball and the Yankees play powerful baseball. The Jays are capable of both but they have yet to demonstrate “Blue Jays Baseball” for more than a game or two at a time.
The bottom of the fourth goes by and the Jays get multiple base runners and they don’t score any runs. Feels like this is happening too much. Not just this game but to the start of this season. Something else that stands out in this game is the number of Jays’ hitters falling behind early in their at-bats. This strike zone is a suspect at best, but that doesn’t change the fact that Jays’ hitters are hitting from behind. I would like to see more first and second-pitch swings from the Jays in the 5th and 6th inning. The top of the lineup is going to have two more tries at scoring runs this game. Be aggressive in these middle innings.
Early Swing Tracker - 5th Inning
B5: Springer behind 1-2, no swings, single. Bo swings at the first pitch and gets a weird single off the umpire. Vladdy falls behind 1-2 then pops outs. He can swing when he wants, but being behind is being behind. Varsho gets ahead 2-1. The first two pitches were garbage. He grounds out but moves the runners. Here is one of those situations. Runners on 2nd and 3rd, two outs. Need a hit. Kirk at the plate, 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, swinging strikeout. Not good enough boys.
After the top half of the 6th inning, Bassitt gets a quality start and he has one run a support to show for his efforts. This is the Tigers and they sent out a starting pitcher who got lit up by the Rays and the Red Sox. Different game different fields yada yada. I’m watching this game and thinking about the next series against the Rays. Where are the runs going to come from against the leagues best pitching staff?
Early Swing Tracker - 6th inning
B6: The Tigers have brought a reliever, Shreve into the game. Belt swings at the first pitch and pops out into foul territory. Merrifield sees a strike but swings at the second pitch and gets a single down the right-field line. Espinal gets ahead 2-1 then swings at the next two pitches. He works the count full and Merrifield steals second, but Espinal grounds out to third on what looked like ball four. Oh look, two outs and a runner in scoring position. Biggio swings and misses at the first pitch then gets a garbage call for strike 2. A swinging strikeout ends the inning. I hope this is the Jays getting bad at-bats out of their system before facing the Rays.
Now that the starter is out of the game, the Jays did start swinging earlier in their at-bats. The results just aren’t there but the game is still close. This is not the way I want to be playing these games against the likes of the Tigers, apologies to the Tigers, but the Yankees and Rays trains are shoveling coal while the Jays are still trying to figure out how to work the buttons in the engineer’s chair.
The Jays get bailed out hard by the Tiger bats in the top of the 7th inning. Bases loaded, zero outs and the Tigers are not able to score. The score is still 2-1 going into the last round of the lineup. If the Jays can find a way to get a few guys on base, the heart of the lineup will see two more at-bats. This game is still winnable.
The Jays didn’t get the job done in this one. Biggio was done dirty in the last at-bat of the game but a loss is a loss. This one was winnable and the Blue Jays just didn’t. They won the series which is good, but these are the games that pad the win column and they Jays need to play better situational baseball at the plate.
