It's the other half of 2021's six games with the Tigers, all happening within ten days with only the four games with the White Sox in between.
I didn't see those first three games, which were played at the Dome last week. As some of you know, I was in Winnipeg visiting family for the first time in several years (pesky pandemic!) While I'm informed that they do indeed have televisions in Manitoba I didn't actually see any in the entire week I was there. I was staying in an empty, unfurnished condo that my sister is in the process of selling. No television there, obviously. I did spend time visiting both her and my ancient father, but I don't know if either of them even own televisions. And being out of province, I could not avail myself of my own access to ways of watching the Jays.
I did use up more than my entire monthly allotment of smartphone data following the play-by-play, which is how I know that the Jays received brilliant performances from all three of their starting pitchers. Robbie Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Steven Matz allowed a total of 2 runs in 22 innings, and when your starters have an ERA of 0.82 over a series you expect to do better than win once in three tries. Alas, the Tigers got pretty good pitching as well. Two games eventually went to extra innings, and that's never been a good thing for the 2021 Jays. One also gets the feeling that Jobu badly needs to come and take the fear from the bats.
This time around the Jays should see catcher Eric Haase, outfielder Akil Baddoo, and pitcher Matt Boyd, all of whom were out with injury just last week. As for the Jays, it sound like returns of Nate Pearson, Danny Jansen, and (surprise!) George Springer may be imminent. I just don't expect to see any of them this weekend.
Hey, I got Matchups!
Fri 27 Aug - Matz (10-7, 3.94) vs Manning (3-5, 5.91)
Sat 28 Aug - Manoah (5-2, 3.18) vs Alexander (2-2, 4.25)
Sun 29 Aug - Berrios (8-7, 3.70) vs Boyd (3-6, 3.44)
I didn't see those first three games, which were played at the Dome last week. As some of you know, I was in Winnipeg visiting family for the first time in several years (pesky pandemic!) While I'm informed that they do indeed have televisions in Manitoba I didn't actually see any in the entire week I was there. I was staying in an empty, unfurnished condo that my sister is in the process of selling. No television there, obviously. I did spend time visiting both her and my ancient father, but I don't know if either of them even own televisions. And being out of province, I could not avail myself of my own access to ways of watching the Jays.
I did use up more than my entire monthly allotment of smartphone data following the play-by-play, which is how I know that the Jays received brilliant performances from all three of their starting pitchers. Robbie Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Steven Matz allowed a total of 2 runs in 22 innings, and when your starters have an ERA of 0.82 over a series you expect to do better than win once in three tries. Alas, the Tigers got pretty good pitching as well. Two games eventually went to extra innings, and that's never been a good thing for the 2021 Jays. One also gets the feeling that Jobu badly needs to come and take the fear from the bats.
NAME GP AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB AVG OBP SLG OPS
George Springer 15 57 14 16 5 1 5 14 38 8 16 0 .281 .373 .667 1.040
Teoscar Hernandez 25 94 18 32 4 0 6 21 54 3 24 2 .340 .367 .574 .942
Marcus Semien 25 99 15 25 8 0 8 13 57 8 19 3 .253 .312 .576 .888
Lourdes Gurriel 20 63 6 20 4 0 3 12 33 4 11 0 .317 .358 .524 .882
Corey Dickerson 20 57 9 15 2 2 3 11 30 3 8 1 .263 .300 .526 .826
Alejandro Kirk 15 42 3 13 5 0 0 7 18 2 7 0 .310 .354 .429 .783
Vladimir Guerrero 24 95 13 23 1 0 3 7 33 12 18 2 .242 .333 .347 .681
Santiago Espinal 22 56 5 14 1 0 1 4 18 8 8 2 .250 .354 .321 .675
Reese McGuire 17 41 5 9 4 0 0 2 13 7 5 0 .220 .347 .317 .664
Randal Grichuk 23 65 8 12 4 0 2 9 22 9 21 0 .185 .293 .338 .632
Breyvic Valera 15 38 5 9 1 0 0 3 10 2 0 0 .237 .275 .263 .538
Bo Bichette 22 88 12 19 2 0 1 7 24 5 21 3 .216 .255 .273 .528
Kevin Smith 5 11 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 4 0 .091 .167 .091 .258
Cavan Biggio 2 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 .000 .250 .000 .250
Josh Palacios 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 .000 .000 .000 .000
Otto Lopez 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 .000 .000 .000
I guess these would be the Duds of August? Or maybe this team isn't quite the offensive juggernaut they appeared to be when they were playing half their games in Dunedin or Buffalo?
Hey, I got Matchups!
Fri 27 Aug - Matz (10-7, 3.94) vs Manning (3-5, 5.91)
Sat 28 Aug - Manoah (5-2, 3.18) vs Alexander (2-2, 4.25)
Sun 29 Aug - Berrios (8-7, 3.70) vs Boyd (3-6, 3.44)
