The Blue Jays are on pace to go 60-0

Things worth mentioning…

• Hyun Jin Ryu took the hill for his first-ever start as a Blue Jay and it mostly went very well. Ryu was very ace-like over his first four innings of work, painting corners, mixing speeds, and ultimately coming as advertised. He ran into some problems in the fifth inning, though, as he surrendered a walk and a two-run bomb that resulted in him getting yanked. Ryu’s control was a tad off tonight, but you can probably chalk that up to pitchers not being as sharp as they would usually be after a normal-length spring training.
• Pretty much everyone got into the mix offensively, which is exactly what you want to see from this lineup. Everybody reached base at least once, and everybody except for Rowdy Tellez had at least one hit.
• The Jays went up 3-0 with a very small-ball-style inning, in which Cavan Biggio reached on a bunt single, Vlad Jr. singled, and Travis Shaw walked before Randal Grichuk, Rowdy Tellez, and Teoscar Hernandez hit back-to-back-to-back sacrifice flies. It seemed the team’s approach at the plate was more conservative and less free-swinging than usual, which is a good sign.
• Biggio busted the game wide open the following inning, smashing a three-run bomb off of Charlie Morton.

• The ‘pen was a bit of a mixed bag tonight. Jordan Romano worked around a couple of walks to pick up three outs and then Anthony Bass was untouchable for four outs. After that, Rafael Dolis came in and reminded us exactly what baseball anxiety felt like. He had a hell of a time with his command, but worked around a single, a couple of walks, and an error for a one-run inning. I had forgotten how jarring it can be to watch a reliever walk the tightrope like that.
• Ken Giles came in and closed out the game in the ninth in a much less anxious inning. He did allow the tying run to reach but put the game to bed with a strikeout of Brandon Lowe. Remember, this game is worth 2.7 normal games because of the 60-game season!
• Another random note… The Blue Jays have apparently brought Dante Bichette on board in a coaching role. He had been hanging around with the team during Summer Camp, but it was mentioned on the broadcast that the team had officially hired him. He looks like Bane from The Dark Knight. Good lord.