Blue Jays 1 Athletics 5
The Blue Jays lost something much more than the game tonight as first baseman Edwin Encarnacion came out limping after running out a RBI fielder's choice in the first inning. The slugger looked to be in a large amount of pain as he was helped off the field. You can see video of the injury here, although it's not too pretty to watch. Hopefully it's as minor the team is trying to make it sound:
#BlueJays say EE left game with right quadriceps soreness.
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) July 6, 2014In terms of the actual game, the Blue Jays were absolutely dominated by Scott Kazmir who allowed only three hits and one run while striking out eight hitters over seven innings. The run came on the aforementioned Encarnacion fielder choice which scored Jose Reyes.
On the pitching side of things Mark Buehrle got beat around pretty well by the Athletics allowing 10 hits in six innings, but the lefty somehow only surrendered three runs. He gave up a deep homer to centre field to third baseman Josh Donaldson in the third inning, which is where things kind of started to unravel. The star third baseman also made a fantastic running catch into the tarp in the eighth inning on Munenori Kawasaki.
Also in the eighth inning Melky Cabrera was called out on a play at the plate on a great relay from left field by Oakland, but Cabrera quickly encouraged John Gibbons to challenge thinking he got underneath the tag. The skipper obliged, but somehow the call was not overturned much to the shock of pretty much everyone with a pair of eyes.
It took about a decade to incorrectly review the play, which is especially frustrating in a West Coast game that started at 10pm. Around this time is when people that weren't writing a recap said:
BED TIME
— Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) July 6, 2014The bottom of the eighth made things even worse when the Athletics jumped all over Sergio Santos forcing him from the game after allowing a single and then a run scoring double on a fastball right down the middle of the plate. Brett Cecil relieved Santos and after a ground out moved the base runner to third, a high curveball scored him on a brutal passed ball.
Then Jose Bautista got angry at the team before the top of the ninth, which was not enjoyable to watch. He seemed to be just venting his frustration, but the majority of his words were directed at Jose Reyes who looked like a shell shocked child who wasn't sure how to react. The Blue Jays went down quietly in the final inning, which really put a crap cherry on the garbage sundae.
Source: FanGraphs
There's no Jays of the Day because this game was awful. Suckage Jays include Mark Buehrle (-.139 WPA), Bautista (-.123), and Juan Francisco (-.106). Jose got a lot of the poor WPA from the blown call in the eighth inning, so you can't be too angry at him.
This series finishes later today at 4pm EST as Drew Hutchison goes up against the newest Oakland addition Jeff Samardzija. The Blue Jays will try to salvage something from this forgettable four-game set with the best team in the major leagues. Just a reminder, the Blue Jays are 3-7 in their last 10 games and no longer in first place in the American League East.