Blue Jays Play Bee Baseball: Lose 4-0 to the Angels

The Blue Jays were unable to mount much of an offence in their game on Sunday as the Angels came out on top with a 4-0 win.

The most exciting moment of this game occurred at a time when the players weren’t even on the field.  In the third inning, Mike Trout was standing on first base when he started jumping around and waving his arms at his head.  Edwin Encarnacion was dancing around in a similar fashion on first base.  Together they both started running towards the dugout, and the rest of the infield ran after them followed shortly by the outfield, the umpires, and the pitcher.

There was a swarm of bees on the field that prevented play for thirteen minutes.  The bees were so thick that they were easily seen on the TV cameras as they buzzed around the faces of the players and the fans.  The grounds crew at Angel Stadium didn’t have a solution to the problem, and neither did the umpires, so everyone just sat back and waited for the swarm to move on.  Thankfully, move on they did and as quickly and mysteriously as they came, they were gone.

Marcus Stroman allowed only two runs over his seven innings of work.  He scattered seven hits and three walks over those seven innings and was working his way out of a jam in every inning.  The first inning was the only easy 1-2-3 inning for Marcus, who seemed to struggle unable to fully find his rhythm over the 105 pitches he threw.

Together Albert Pujols and Mike Trout combined for all four Angels runs.  They were on base a total of six of the eight times they came to bat.  The Angels – particularly Trout and Pujols – took advantage of two innings of sloppy defensive work and strange errors by the Blue Jays.  The first was in the second inning, and the other was in the 7th inning.

The first Angels run came in the second inning after Stroman walked Pujols.  Stroman looked like he was out of the inning on a double play when Simmons slid illegally into second base, preventing Troy Tulowitzki from completing the double play.  The Blue Jays didn’t review the play and Simmons was awarded second.  Pujols came around to score on a sacrifice fly after catcher’s interference was called on Dioner Navarro to load the bases.

Brett Cecil entered in the seventh in relief of Stroman and retired the one batter he faced.  Joe Biagini relieved Cecil and allowed Trout and Pujols to reach base.  Trout scored on a sac fly by C.J Cron.  Biagini then walked Simmons and Pujols scored as Ortega was allowed to stretch a single into a double as Michael Saunders threw the ball lazily into the infield from left.

In the end, the Jays recorded four hits and were shut out by the Angels.l who tied the series 2-2.  Next up they take on the Mariners in Seattle.  Marco Estrada (3.78 ERA) will start the series for the Jays and will face off against Taijuan Walker (4.28 ERA) at 10:10 on Monday, September 19th.