Jays bats no match for unsung Blanco
The Blue Jays have only been involved in one perfect game, but Monday nights’s 10-0 blowout loss in Houston was as close as they’ve come since Cleveland’s Len Barker retired all 27 Jays he faced back on May 15, 1981.
George Springer led off the game by drawing a walk and that was it, until Springer came up with two out in the ninth and walked again. Twenty-six consecutive Jays hitters were set down in between, and 30-year-old Ronel Blanco, in only his eighth big-league start, followed by getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to ground out to second to secure the 17th no-hitter in Astros history.
What’s supposed to be an improved offence was an absolute noshow at Minute Maid Park, not really even close to getting a hit. Blanco dazzled them with a mixture of change-ups and sliders and a fastball that broke 95 miles per hour only once.
There were seven strikeouts, five pop-ups on the infield and 10 ground balls, not a single one of them hit hard until Cavan Biggio’s grounder to first with one out in the ninth. That 97.6-m.p.h. shot was smothered by first baseman Jose Abreu, who flipped it to Blanco for the game’s penultimate out.
The closest the Jays came to a hit all night was in the third inning, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a 99.9m.p.h. line drive to deep left-centre, run down nicely by left-fielder Chas McCormick in the gap.
They had a chance for a fluke single in the eighth when Alejandro Kirk smacked a one-hopper up the middle that went off Blanco’s glove and caromed to the right side. Second baseman Mauricio Dubon was able to get to it in time, though any other Jays hitter would have beaten it out.
The no-hitter, the eighth against the Jays in the 48-season history of the franchise, was the cherry on top of an awful night that saw Bowden Francis give up home runs to three of the first eight hitters he faced in his first big-league start before settling down and pitching into the sixth.
The Astros had hit two home runs all season going into Monday, when they blasted five, two each for Kyle Tucker and Yainer Díaz.
Kiner-Falefa, who started at third base, finished it up on the mound, pitching a hitless bottom of the eighth.