Outside of the top, let’s face it, Matt Chapman is great with the glove. With almost everyone else in the third base, this would be a different game. In the sixth inning, it seemed that Yusei Kikuchi was starting to lose. Leave the back-to-back singles to start the inning. Then there was a bouncing ball on the third base line, which Chapman put up, touched the third and made a great shot in the first for the double game. The next blow hits almost exactly the grounder, much louder (103.1 MPH) that Chapman grabbed again (below) behind the bag and again made a great shot on the first, taking the third out. In the seventh, he made a big hit in an emerging hit behind the third. Kukichi had an amazing start. Making six appearances, he abandoned a solo hostage, the two singles mentioned above, and another single, just one walk with eight hits. He was in charge all the way. He may have had one more point inside, but I was about to get him out while things were going well. Without Chapman, his last game would not be great. In the attack, two large swings did all the damage. Theoscar Hernτεndez crushed a no doubt in the second inning, a two-shot, 419 foot. And Santiago Espinal had his own two-wheeled Homer in the seventh. Without a doubt, just above the wall of the left court, in Jays bullpen, caught by David Phelps. We only had 9 hits a day. Teoscar (3) and Espinal (2) had 5 of the 9 hits. The first, Matt Wisler, scored without a score. After that, Ryan Yarbourgh played most of the game, giving up 8 hits, 4 runs and 1 walk without a strikeout, in 5.1 innings. I thought Kevin Cash left him in a little while, but both teams have a lot of baseball ahead of them this weekend. Vlad, Chapman and Moreno had 0 for. From the pen:
Trent Thornton missed a shot and had a strikeout in the seventh Phelps stopped walking and scored a strikeout in the eighth. Cimber got the rebound (making his third game in a row). His fourth in the season. Finished with a strike out.
Jays of the Day: Kikuchi (.258 WPA), Teoscar (0.189) and Espinal (0.171). I give Chapman an honorable mention, despite his -076 WPA, for his glove. No one had the Suckage number. Bo (-.087), Moreno (0.080, but worth points for helping Kukichi navigate the game) and Vlad (-.070) all came close. Tomorrow we have a day game for Canada Day, starting at 3:00 East. Jose Berrios 5-4, 5.86 ERA, hopes to recover from a terrible start. Corey Kluber (3-4, 3.45) takes the start for the Rays.
