Jays Marlins Recap

 I just noticed as I signed on today that this is my 200th post on here! I can't believe I made it to pumping out 200 of these without even really thinking of advertising or optimizing it, but here we are. If you've read a good amount of these, thank you! That's pretty cool, I'm just some dude with a lot of sports takes that I wanted to get out somewhere and this has been a nice vehicle to do it. I appreciate the love and encouragement for sure!

Now to the point of the post, the Jays had a pretty exciting series win against the Marlins this weekend. I'll qualify this with saying the Marlins are a very young team, especially on offense, and that showed up in some of the Jays pitching performances this weekend. Still though they are scrappy and annoying, almost like a lite version of the Jays offense this year and it made for some fun baseball. The only game I missed was the one where they lost, so we won't be talking about that much. Lets get into it: 

Bieber Fever! 

Hard to start anywhere else! On Friday Shane Bieber made his Blue Jays debut. I've spoken a ton about the risk and reward of this trade and I think most Jays fans knew the deal. Still though, coming into this start, I just like most fans, didn't know what to expect. A guy making his first start off Tommy John surgery you just hope will give you 4 solid innings and demonstrate he's got the strength to build on for his next start. Shane Bieber blew expectations out of the water going 6 innings allowing only 1 run on 2 hits with no walks and 9 strikeouts. A dominant ace level performance. If he wasn't coming off an injury we definitely would've seen him come out for the 7th, he was dealing. The lone run Bieber gave up was on a 2 out solo shot by Javier Sanoja, which you can live with from your ace. Bieber immediately showing he's still got it creates more good problems for the Jays in their rotation, I'll get to the biggest of those later, but it also helps to answer some questions. The Jays at the start of the season probably had 1 guy you could really trust to take the ball in a playoff series and give you a great chance of winning, Kevin Gausman. All of the sudden Max Scherzer is pitching like Max Scherzer again giving you 2 names. If Shane Bieber is really like this, you have 3 top of the line rotation pieces going into the playoffs, which gives you as good of a chance as any team to win. Look at me getting ahead of myself, regardless, it's a great start for Bieber and we can only hope it keeps up. 

Jose Berrios 

No fun title for this section, Jose's name needs to be seen. I saw in multiple places an ice cold take leading up to the Shane Bieber start and that was: Jose Berrios is pitching for his life in the rotation on Saturday. Jose has struggled the last couple of months for sure. It coincidentally came at a time where the other Jays starters were rolling combined with Shane Bieber's looming debut. With those factors in mind, I get it, but realistically Berrios was never going to be the odd man out for the regular season. Jose was never meant to be your #1 guy, but for his entire tenure with the Jays he's been reliable and solid, including this year safe for this small blip. While Eric Lauer did come in and surprise people this year, it'd be a hard pill to swallow to send your $19m per year starter to the bullpen for a $1.8m guy unless Berrios was getting dominated. Still, the fans were chirping and Jose needed to prove something. Prove it he did on Saturday delivering a dominant start going 6.1 innings without the Marlins even threatening until the 7th. In the 7th this game became a wild one, but for most of it the Jays dominated and that's because of Jose Berrios' start. If he was pitching for his life in the rotation on Saturday, he's going to live to see another day, so thank you Jose. 

The Bo Bichette Game

Ok now lets finally break down one of the wilder Jays game I've seen this season. With Vladdy needing about a week off to recover from a hamstring injury, the Jays need guys to step up and keep the wins rolling. Bo Bichette showed why he's considered a star short stop on Saturday in a game that I think should be worth 1 WAR. Starting in the 7th inning, like I said above, Jose Berrios was dominating and the Jays had a comfy 4-0 lead. Bichette already had 3 singles in this one coming around to score on one of them in the 5th. Berrios got the first out in the 7th but then gave up back to back hits to set up runners on second and third with 1 out. It was the end of a very good start for Jose with Louis Varland coming in. Varland immediately gives up a single making the game 4-1. The next batter he gives up a double, the runner on first tries to come all the way around to home but is cut down at the plate on a perfect relay throw from Bo Bichette to get a much needed second out and keep the game 4-2. Varland then gives up a walk, and then another single allowing a 3rd run to come in, a pretty ugly relief appearance for a guy that started out really hot with the Jays. Still though, because of Bo the Jays are clinging on to a 1 run lead through 7. 

The Jays manage nothing in the 8th then Seranthony Dominguez has a clean 1, 2, 3 inning in the bottom half. The Jays don't score again in the 9th and it sets up Jeff Hoffman in a save situation up 1 run in the bottom of the 9th. Hoffman commits the cardinal sin of walking the leadoff guy. The Marlins bring in a pinch runner, he steals second then gets moved to third on a lineout and all of the sudden the tying run is on third base with 1 out. Hoffman gives up a single and the game is tied. Luckily he gets the next 2 batters to get out of the inning, but the Jays seemingly blow a beautiful Berrios start and are headed to extras. In extras Bo is the runner on second. He gets to third on a wild pitch then comes around to score on a sacrifice fly to give the Jays a 5-4 lead. Mason Fluharty comes in to try and salvage the game, gets a ground out but then gives up a double scoring the tying run again. After an intentional walk the Jays bring in Tommy Nance who gets out of the inning giving the Jays another shot. In the 11th the Jays move the runner over to third again and then score him with a Gimenez single to take a 6-5 lead. They don't manage another run in the inning once again and have to protect a 1 run lead in the bottom of the 11th. Tommy Nance comes back out for the 11th and gives up back to back singles to not only tie the game up but set the Marlins up with runners on first and second and nobody out. The obvious move here needing only 1 run to win is a sacrifice bunt. The Marlins try this but the batter pops the bunt up, a perfect scenario for the Jays as they get an out with no runners advancing. Nance then gets a double play with the next batter and narrowly escapes the situation.

Now in the top of the 12th the Jays once again have a productive out moving the runner to third base bringing up Bo Bichette who already has 4 singles in this game. Bo slaps another single to give the Jays the lead once again, but again the Jays can't score another and they've already used most of their leverage bullpen arms. Brenden Little comes in for the 4th time in 6 days, something the Jays definitely didn't want to have to do. With the first batter he gets a ground ball to Bo Bichette, Bo sees the runner hesitated between advancing to third or getting back to second and he makes a quick decision to throw to second base cutting the runner down. Now the Jays have a great chance with the runner in scoring position removed because of a great heads up play by Bo Bichette. The Jays get 2 more quick outs and escape with this victory and the series. In a 1 run win Bo saved a run in the 7th, scored the go ahead run in the 10th, hit the go ahead RBI in the 12th and then eliminated the runner in scoring position in the 12th to essentially save another run. Bo's average is up to .304 on the season and games like this are why I really hope the Jays pay him this off season. 

And that's that for today! Pretty fun weekend, especially that Saturday game. I'm thinking of switching gears here and doing some NFL off season recaps the next couple of days. It's about to be a glorious time for Lohensports with the NFL and NBA starting at the same time as a Jays playoff run, oh boy!