Jose Berrios (8-8, 4.08) bounced back from a series of mediocre starts and looked like what he was in April of this year, shutting down the Texas Rangers and giving the Toronto Blue Jays their first series sweep since they swept the Chicago White Sox (May 27-29).
Catcher Brian Serven was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo after Danny Jansen was traded to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday. Jansen up to this point had been the longest tenured player in Toronto. He was selected by the Blue Jays in the 16th round of the 2013 MLB Draft, he spent five seasons in the minor leagues before making his big league debut with Toronto in August of 2018. In his seven years with the Blue Jays, Jansen batted .222 with a .733 OPS, to go along with 71 homers and 214 RBIs.
Onto the game action, Jon Gray (5-4, 3.73) was scheduled to start for the Rangers. Gray would exit the game without throwing a single pitch after feeling discomfort in his right groin during his warmup pitches in the bottom of the 1st inning.
Jonathan Hernandez (3-0, 4.19) would come out of the bullpen to relieve Gray, the right hander threw 2 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on five hits, walking one and striking out none to take his first loss of the year.
Berrios on the other hand, looked like what the Blue Jays had envisioned. He threw 7 innings, scattering six hits and giving up one run, along with no walks and five punch outs, en route to securing his ninth victory of the year.
The Blue Jays jumped out of the gate early, scoring in the bottom of the 1st. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. got it started with a sacrifice fly, scoring Spencer Horwitz and giving Toronto a 1-0 lead. Daulton Varsho then put a charge into one, sending a ball into right field for a two run homer and extending the lead to 3-0.
The Jays would tack more on runs in the bottom half of the 3rd, Vladdy hit his 19th bomb of the year to extend the Toronto lead to 4-0. Later in the inning, Addison Barger would smack a two RBI double to give the Blue Jays a 6-0 lead.
The Rangers would get their first run on the board in the top of the 6th, when Nathaniel Lowe drove in Wyatt Langford with an RBI single to make it 6-1.
The Blue Jays would get that run right back in the bottom half of the inning, when Leo Jimenez drove in Alejandro Kirk with a sacrifice fly.
Texas would add a couple runs in the top of the 8th, when Josh Smith stepped up and hit a two run shot to cut the Toronto lead to 7-3, his 11th bomb of the year.
Zach Pop would relieve Genesis Cabrera after the Smith homer, recording four outs to give him the first save of his career.
The Blue Jays will now head to Camden Yards to take on the division leading Baltimore Orioles in a four game series. The two teams will start with a doubleheader on Monday to make up a game that was rained out on May 14, when the Blue Jays last visited the Orioles. The pitching matchup for the first game will be Yariel Rodriguez (1-3, 3.60) for Toronto and Zach Eflin (5-7, 4.09), who will be making his first start for Baltimore since being traded from the Tampa Bay Rays earlier in the week. To start game two, the Blue Jays will call up Bowden Francis (3-2, 5.82) from Triple-A Buffalo, the Orioles have not yet announced a starter for the second of the twin bill.
