Blue Jays drop “home” opener to Angels
Where’s Rogers Stadium?`
Oh right, it’s 2021. The Toronto Blue Jays are playing in Dunedin, Florida as their home field. In normal times, that would be their minor-league stadium or spring-training field at best. However, these are not normal times.
Regardless, that opener was ruined at TD Ballpark, as the Jays dropped another (that’s three in a row, folks), in a 7–5 extra-innings loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
Even though George Springer technically hasn’t played a season game for the Jays, the lineup is already missing some of that punch they so badly need in high-pressure situations we saw a lot of in yesterday’s game.
We obviously don’t have Mike Trout, who seems to love destroying Ross Stripling for some reason, so the Jays made do with some powerful swings of their own.
The Game
Toronto got off to a sizzling start, erasing a 1–0 deficit and building a two-run lead of their own after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crushed his second home run of the season 404 feet off Griffin Canning. Vladdy as usual.
The Jays never hold a lead for long though, as many may have noticed. A pair of doubles at the top of the second by Iglesias and Fletcher made it three-all.
It might have meant more runs for Los Angeles if not for Jays centre fielder Randal Grichuk, who made a pair of huge diving snags in the second and then in the ninth to deny a couple of Angels.
You can’t write off Guerrero Jr. at first base either, who leaped up in the to erase a line-drive double with his stellar catch in the second as well.
The game remained at a standstill all the way ’til the fifth, when Mike Trout cranked the first offering from Stripling and sent it out the ballpark.
The Jays responded right after, with Cavan Biggio homering and Guerrero Jr. driving in a run to retake the lead 5–4. That lead was also lost, since it was their last run of the game.
Shohei Ohtani, the recent sensation (watch his 100 mph fastball and 100 mph homers from previous games) sent it to extra-innings at 5–5 with an RBI single.
The four-hour-long game finally came to an end with Fletcher’s two-RBI single winning it for the Angels, 7–5.
Notes
The Jays lost. It sucks, but there was plenty of good to deduce from that match.
- Amazing defensive plays (by this I mean highlight-reel catches) from Guerrero Jr. and Grichuk which saved some runs for sure
- Our bats were lighting it up (two homers in a game by a team is always decent)
- Ever hear of Julian Merryweather? He throws 100.2 mph as a Jays relief pitcher.
We got three more games against the Angels throughout the weekend, so we still have time to prove ourselves against Trout and his gang.
Still without Springer for those games, though. Sad.
