Blue Jays Buehrle Bounced Around by Indians Bats

After a great beginning to their series in city housing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Mark Buehrle and the Blue Jays got rocked as the Indians offense rolled all over him for 8 runs as they took down the Blue Jays 9-4. This ties the series at 1-1.

Both teams exchanged runs in the first (thanks to a lead off homer off the bat of Josh Donaldson for the Blue Jays and a homer by Jason Kipnis in the bottom half). Both exchanged 3 runs in the 3rd. Edwin Encarnacion doubled in Josh Donaldson and later in the 3rd Super surprise Kevin Pillar exchanged his stellar defensive glove for batting gloves and tripled in Encarnacion and Jose Bautista. Carlos Carrasco was the recipient of all that offense and somehow was able to make it to the 6th inning with no more damage done.

The Indians got right back in it in the bottom of the third. Brandon Moss’ fifth double lined to Michael Saunders scored Mike Aviles (the trade piece for John Farrell) and MVP candidate Michael Brantley. Aviles and Brantley would would hit the scoresheet again as Brantley homered with Aviles on base in the fourth inning to put the Tribe up 5-3. Then in the ill-fated 5th, Buehrle didn’t last as he gave up two more hits and gave way to Canadian Lefty Andrew Albers….who promptly surrendered a three-run homer to left centre off the bat of Brett Hayes. Welcome to Toronto kid. Thanks for that memory…Tribe 9, Blue Jays 4.

From there it was a battle of the bullpens. Albers settled down and tossed two more scoreless innings and aside from using 20 pitches, Miguel Castro threw a scoreless 8th to redeem himself after some somewhat lousy outings. The Indians bullpen tossed three scoreless to keep the game out of reach and the final was 9-4. Dammit.

Game Notes:

– After giving up 11 hits yesterday, the Blue Jays pitching gave up another 13 today. If they are going to contend this whole give up hits and get out of a tight squeeze scenarios need to be further and farther between.

– Aside from the shaky start, Albers did alright in his 2.2 innings. Lok for him to be the replacement for Marco Estrada as Estrada takes the recently demoted Daniel Norris’ place in the rotation.

– Devon Travis was given the night of and Ryan Goins was his replacement at 2nd. He Goins-ed it up by an 0-4 night at the plate and some great defense in the field.

– Michael Saunders struck out 3 times and is currently hitting a robust .100… he is one of 4 Blue Jays projected regulars to be hitting under .200 on May 1 (Jose Bautista, Russ Martin and Dalton Pompey being the others). It is amazing the Blue Jays are right up there in the MAJORS in runs scored. If even two of those bats start to turn around the offense will be scary good. Right now it is done with smoke and mirrors.

Starting Pitching: F

Sorry Mr. Buehrle, I love that you are a great innings eater and that you have 200 wins but the hits…ohhh the hits. Let’s see if we can keep that total down for the next little while just to give your neck a bit of a rest from watching balls flying all over the field.

Game Ball goes to….nobody. No game ball for you!

Hitting: B

The offense once again did enough of a good job to hopefully pull out a win but aside from three guys, Pillar, Donaldson and Travis, the hitting has been limited. Bautista did get two hits so perhaps he is coming out of his funk.

Game Ball goes to Kevin Pillar two more hits and two RBI and his first triple of the season. Michael who?

Bullpen: B+

Albers gave up the homer to put the game out of reach but did ok his two other innings and Miguel Castro got through the 8th unscathed. That’s pretty good work in trying to keep the game close.

Game Ball goes to Miguel Castro to hopefully give his confidence a boost after this outing.

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