Blue Jay Sanchez Shines as He Takes Out the Red Sox

What is that Blue Jays Fans? It feels good to be .500 doesn’t it? Thanks to some solid pitching from Aaron Sanchez and the bullpen to some big time offense your Toronto Blue Jays took the first of a three game set from Wade Miley and the Boston Red Sox 7-0.

In the first Josh Donaldson smoked an offering from Miley off the third deck in left field…his 7th homer of the season and 5th at Rogers Centre Next inning Clubbin’ Chris Colabello launched his 1st home run of the season off of Miley to put the Jays up 2-0. Boston had two walks and a hit batter in the fourth to challenge Sanchez but a strikeout of Blake Swihart and a double play off the bat of Xander Bogaerts erased that threat. In fact the only hit the Red Sox had in the first seven innings was a single by Jay killer Dustin Pedroia in the first that was also erased on a double play.

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Sanchez gave up a walk and a single in the 8th and gave way to Aaron Loup and then Steve Delabar who put the Red Sox to sleep for the final two innings. The Jays got 2 more in the 6th inning and 3 more in the 8th to put this one to bed rather easily. The Red Sox were 0-7 with RISP and have lost 6 of 7. Things bode well for the rest of the series it would seem.

May 6, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Chris Colabello connects for a single against New York Yankees in the eighth inning at Rogers Centre. Colabello had four hits in a 5-1 Jays win. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Game Notes

– Chris Colabello, Ezequiel Carrera and Danny Valencia continue to be big time contributors in their limited amount of at-bats this season (26-62, .419 BA). The bench was such a lousy part of the Blue Jays teams past seasons as they seemed to have no depth in the minors. Well this season the Blue Jays have proven that their depth is greater than some may have thought.

– 21 of the 27 outs recorded by the Red Sox were either strike out or ground out. Those are numbers that if continued almost assuredly will lead to some great success.

– The Blue Jays have recorded at least one extra-base hit in every game this season. The only other AL team to do that is the New York Yankees.

– The Blue Jays lead the AL in slugging percentage (.440).

– on the flip side, the Jays lead the AL in walks allowed with 114…18 more than their next closest team…the Red Sox.

Starting Pitching: A-

A very good start from Aaron Sanchez could have been even better if he hadn’t given up 5 walks. Once he gets a bit better command he will dominate like he did for stretches of tonight’s game. His ERA has now dropped to 3.62 and if he continues to grow each start he may yet fulfill all the hype that has been laid upon him since he was drafted.

Bullpen: A

Aaron Loup had a great 8th and sort of reclamation project Steve Delabar put up a 0 in the 9th inning to stake his claim as a potential late inning guy out of the pen. If these 2 can keep it up it will go a long way to calming down a bullpen that has been very ordinary so far this season.

Hitting: A

The went 3-8 with RISP and got contributions up and down the lineup from Kevin Pilar, Ezequiel Carrera (with 2 RBI) and a smoking hot Russ Martin, who went 2-4 to up his average to .295. It seems the bats of Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista are warming up too as both had two hits as well.