There was a glimmer of hope for the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning, as they were one hit away from tying the game against the Milwaukee Brewers, but Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lined out on the final play, as the Brewers squeaked by with a 5-4 win.
The inning started with five straight Blue Jays reaching base, including a Spencer Horwitz RBI single, Bo Bichette driving in a run and Alejandro Kirk hitting a sac fly to plate three runs just like that, giving Jays fans a brief hope of a series win against a tough team.
Although, Toronto arguably shouldn’t have been in this game with the way the hitting and pitching were going. After Davis Schneider hit a first inning home run to put Toronto up 1-0, the Jays had only three batters reach base, none of whom were in scoring postion until the ninth inning.
Brewers SP Tobias Myers held Toronto’s lineup in check, going 6.0 innings, allowing three hits, one walk, and a single earned run. Myers has only allowed a single run in his last two starts over 12 innings pitched.
Milwaukee is one of the better teams in MLB for team ERA, ranking 9th at a 3.74 ERA and sitting 5th over the past 30 days in team ERA (3.29).
Toronto SP Chris Bassitt had to battle through his start today. Bassitt loaded the bases in the first inning, but was able to escape the jam. It would be deja vu in the fourth inning, as the RHP loaded the bases one again, this time getting the K and pop out to still keep Milwaukee off the scoreboard.
Bassitt, in 5.0 innings, gave up five hits and four walks while allowing zero earned runs. Over his last five starts, Bassitt has now given up no runs in three of them, lowering his ERA to 3.56 on the year.
With all the chances the Brewers had to score, it was a sign that the Blue Jays wouldn’t be able to hold a 1-0 lead all game, and eventually, the sixth inning was where the Milwaukee lineup broke out.
Milwaukee scored five runs in the sixth, their first run coming from a bad play by Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk, who threw the ball away trying to gun down Brice Turang stealing 2nd base. Kirk errand throw allowed Blake Perkins to score from 3rd and even the score at 1.
After scoring two more runs off Jays reliever Zach Pop, Tim Mayza was brought in to stop the bleeding. Facing Willy Adames, Mayza allowed a two-run homer, the eventually game deciding run.
Toronto had only four runs in the entire series until the ninth inning today. Meanwhile, the Jays’ pitching allowed just nine runs in the series (3.00 ERA in 27 innings).
It’s been a battle for the past month and a half for the Jays to get back to .500, as they haven’t been at that mark since April 25th.
Toronto will fly back home to welcome the A.L central division leading Cleveland Guardians on Friday. The two teams will square off six times over the next 10 days.
