Kirk Triples, Jays Lose

Blue Jays 2 Rays 3

You often hear baseball commentators tell us that ‘even though they aren’t in the playoff race, the team hasn’t quit’. Well it looks to me like the Jays have quit.

That might not be fair....they did get nine hits today. And they had runners on base every inning except for the fourth and eighth.

They had:

• One run in the fifth: Nathan Lukes took a two-out walk.
• One run in the seven: With two outs, Spencer Horwitz walked and Alejandro Kirk followed with a triple. Yes, Kirk had his first MLB triple, on a fly ball to right which Josh Lowe tried to catch but missed (if the word ‘error’ meant the same in baseball as it does in the rest of the world, that would have been called an error, but Lowe missed it so badly, they baseball doesn’t call it an error). The triple brings his hitting streak to 14 games (he’s hitting.291/.328/.382 in that stretch).

They were 1 for 9 with RISP.

Vlad had three hits. Horwitz two. George Springer, Addison Barger (with a walk), and Davis Schneider had 0 fors.

Yariel Rodriguez went four innings, giving up four hits, three walks with three strikeouts. He gave up a two-run homer to Jonathan Aranda, that just barely cleared the center field wall.

They got scoreless relief work from:

• Tommy Nance: 1.1 innings, 1 hit, 1 k.
• Brendon Little: 1.1 innings, 1 walk, 1 k.
• Dillon Tate: Got 1 out, with 2 hits against.
• Genesis Cabrera: 1 innings, with 1 k.

Kirk, as well as the triple, picked a runner off third, and caught two base stealers. He also had a wild pitch get past him.

No Jays of the Day today. Horwitz (.064 had the high mark).

Other Award: Springer (-.216), Rodriguez (-.156), and Schneider (-.122).

Tomorrow we finish this series (and finish the Jays road schedule for this year). It will be a bullpen day for the Jays, with Ryan Yarbrough likely to get the ‘bulk’ role.