Blue Jays Game Recap: Dueling Pitchers

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to the Blue Jays Game Recap for Tuesday evening’s game against the Detroit Tigers.

Toronto Blue Jays- 5 vs  Detroit Tigers- 3

W: Dustin McGowan L: Joe Nathan SV: Casey Janssen (9)
Through 5 innings a pitchers duel had developed. Anibal Sanchez kept the Blue Jays off balance. He mixed his cutter with an amazing 67mph change up. The change up seemed to take forever to float into the strike zone. Of course, the cutter made that change up look even slower. His final line: 7 IP, 2H, 0ER, 0BB, 5K.

Drew Hutchison held the Tigers scoreless too!

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While Sanchez seemed to be in control and retiring the Blue Jays with ease, #HutchShow seemed to be laboring through the Tigers’ lineup. Yet, at the end of the 5th, #HutchShow had only given up 3 hits and had thrown one pitch fewer than Sanchez. Neither hurler has surrendered a walk. It might not have looked as nice, but the end results were very similar.

By the time he started the 6th inning, it seemed like #HutchShow turned on a switch and kicked his game into another level. His velocity went up and he was much more aggressive in the strike zone. Honestly, it looked like Miguel Cabrera had a lot of difficulty trying to figure out the 23 year old #HutchShow. Despite being at 94 pitches, John Gibbons sent #HutchShow out to start the 7th. And, he did not disappoint. He just seemed to get better as the game went on. After retiring 11 Tigers in a row, his final line looked like this: 7IP, 3H, 0ER, 0BB, 7K. It is not many nights when you pitch this well and do not get a decision.

Dustin McGowan came on in the 8th for the Blue Jays. He breezed through a 1-2-3 inning with just 8 pitches. As much as I don’t want to admit it, perhaps his proper place is in the bullpen.

In the top of the 9th, Anthony Gose worked a lead off walk (the first and only of the night). He stole 2nd on a curve ball in the dirt. He may have had a chance to go right to third if he had noticed the ball get away from the catcher, Alex Aviles.

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Betsided

The next batter,

, hit a single to LF. That put runners on 1st and 3rd with none out.

drove a single up the middle that looked like the short stop,

, could have had, but didn’t. Gose came in to score. Reyes went to third as he didn’t slow down at all. Lesson: ALWAYS run hard, kids.

Again, runners were on 1st and 3rd. This time with 1 out for Edwin Encarnacion. In an interesting play, Jose Reyes strayed a bit too far off third and Joe Nathan (on in relief) attempted a pick off. He was called safe. Immediately, third baseman Don Kelly was arguing for a review. While he was, Bautista sauntered to 2nd. The safe call stood. So, runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out. Encarnacion walked to load the bases. With the Tigers going with their LHP, Ian Krol, John Gibbons put Kevin Pillar in for Adam Lind. To me, that shows a lot of confidence in the young hitter. And, it paid off. Pillar drove a sac fly to CF to score Reyes and bring the score to 2-0. Than, Brett Lawrie stepped up! He blasted a 3-run opposite field homerun to add 3 more to the board. The Blue Jays scored 5 in the 9th inning to nail down the win in the first game of this series.

Steve Delabar came in to finish the game in the 9th. He walked Ian Kinsler AND Miguel Cabrera to make it interesting. Then, it got really interesting. Delabar gave up a 2 out, 3 run homerun to J.D. Martinez. That brought the score to 5-3. John Gibbons went right to Casey Janssen. He needed just 3 pitches to shut down Don Kelly with a strikeout and collect his 9th save.

The litmus test for this team seems to be going well. They are playing well against contending teams. A series win would go a long way to showing this team is for real. They’ll look for that series win tomorrow as R.A. Dickey (5-4, 4.30) goes up against Rick Porcello (8-2, 3.68)