Jays win pitchers’ duel
Win is Toronto’ s first when scoring fewer than 3 runs inn early a year
TORONTO — Usually when the Blue Jays score two runs in a ball game, they’re dead in the water.
But thanks to the efforts of starter J. A. Ha pp on Sunday afternoon, and the club’s bullpen, the Jays won for the first time this season when scoring two or less.
Behind a hardscrabble six innings of work from Happ, the Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners 2-0 at the Rogers Centre ,“improving” their record when scoring two runs or less to 1-23. The last time Toronto won a game when scoring fewer than three was Aug .9,2015 at the New York Yankees.
Ha pp gave up only one hit, striking out six and walking four( he also hit Robinson Cano in the fourth), but he battled all the way, falling behind in the count more times than he would have liked, but he managed to rise above some tough innings—three of which he allowed the lead-off batter on base.
“I wasn’ t the best with strike one today, but I stayed in there,” said Happ. “And I think as the game went on I got a little bit better getting ahead of guys, definitely. I was just trying to figure myself out out there and I was taking a deep breath and trying to recompose.”
Happ came up particularly big in the fourth. After walking Chris Iannetta to lead off the inning and then hitting Cano, he managed to get the dangerous Nelson Cruz to swing and miss on a 3-2 pitch. He then struck Dae-Ho Lee out looking and got Kyle Seager to pop out to third with the count again at 3-2. Happ’s change up and curve weren’t working particularly well for him early in the game, so he relied mostly on the time on his two and four seam fastballs.
“That’ s( fast ball) kind of my best pitch so I tried to use that and get ahead with that. You know when you’re not hitting on your other stuff sometimes you got to rely on that. But that will only take you so far too ,” said Ha pp .“I was trying to locate (with the fastball) and mix it up with change.”
The win improved the big lefthander’s record to 13-3 — the first time he was won 13 games. Happ hasn’t lost a game since June 6 in Detroit.
“It means a lot,” said Happ of his 13 wins. “It’s a testament to our team and for myself it feels good. I just have to keep working to get better every day and figure out what works. I feel good about trust in gin myself now and trusting in these guys so it’s been fun and hopefully these next two months will be even more so.”
Heading into the game, the current Mariners lineup was hitting a combined .392 against Ha pp. With the win, the Jays snapped a twogame losing streak and avoided being swept by the Mariners at home.
Happ was followed by Brett Cecil, Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna on the mound, all of whom pitched one inning without giving up a hit. Osuna picked up his 20 th save of the season with a perfect ninth. Manager John Gibbons has settled into having Grilli as his set up man and Osuna as the closer and is hoping that tandem remains consistent for the rest of the season in that order. Gibbons is also gratified that Cecil’s curve ball seems to be coming around, which is huge for the lefty. As for the starter, the manager said Ha pp is a better pitcher now than he’s ever been.
“He’ s got 13 win snow and there’ s two months left so there’s no telling how many he can chalk up,” said Gibbons .“In all over baseball, he’s probably been the most consistent starter out there.”
Seattle starter Wade Miley (6-8) also pitched well in taking the loss, giving up four hits in six innings.
Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion hit a line drive home run to right centre field in the fourth inning off Miley to give the Jays a 1-0 lead. The blast was his 27th of the season and it moved into third place on the club’s alltime home run list with 224, placing him one ahead of Vernon Wells, behind Carlos Delgado (336) and Jose Bautista (255).
The other major highlight for the Jays occurred in the eighth when, with one out and Grilli pitching, third baseman Darwin Barney made a sensational diving catch to his right on a line drive by lead off hitter Norichika Aoki, stealing a sure double away from the Mariners. Grilli then got pinch hitter Seth Smith looking at strike three to end the inning.
Catcher Josh Thole lead off the sixth with a double that found the gap between centre and right. He then made it to third on a grounder to first by Barney. Seattle first baseman Lee picked up the ball and threw it to third — hoping to get the slow-footed Thole — but Seager was late applying the tag. After a review, the original call stood. Thole scored on a double play ground out to second by Josh Donaldson, putting Toronto ahead 2-0.