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Instant Reaction: Blue Jays barely held onto the lead in a 7-6 victory over the Astros
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Photo credit: © Dan Hamilton - USA Today
Ryley Delaney
Jul 2, 2024, 22:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 2, 2024, 22:09 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays allowed the Houston Astros back into the game, but a win is a win.
On Tuesday evening, the Blue Jays hosted the 2017 and 2022 World Series champions for the second of four games, defeating the Astros 7-6 to bring their record to 39-46.
The Blue Jays’ lack of scoring in the first inning is a thing of the past, as they jumped on the board early with a run thanks to Justin Turner, who drove in Vladimir Guerrero Jr with a single.
Their best inning though was the bottom of the third, Spencer Horwitz started it off with his third home run of the season with the sickest bat drop in a long time. This season, he’s slashing .302/.436/.492 with a 15.4 BB% and an 11.5 K% for a 168 wRC+.
After getting two runners on the bases, George Springer hit a three-run shot to give Toronto a 5-0 lead. Over his last seven games, Springer has four home runs and has risen his wRC+ to 88. Good stuff.
The Blue Jays tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Addison Barger’s second career double, as well as a passed ball that scored Alejandro Kirk, but then the comeback started for the Astros.
César Salazar singled to make it 7-1, José Altuve singled to score another run, and with those two on, Yordan Álvarez hit a three-run blast to make it 7-5. Not great.
The Astros added another run thanks to two errors and a ground out in the top of the eighth. It looked as if the Jays were going to blow another seven-run lead to an American League West team with Jeremy Peña leading off the top of the ninth, but Chad Green was able to close the door.

Things worth mentioning…

It wasn’t a great game for José Berríos, who finished with a line of 5 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K with a home run given up to bring his season to 3.63. After a great start to his season, Berríos has a 5.10 ERA since May 7.
The bullpen had a good day though. Nate Pearson struck out three and gave up a hit in two innings of work. Trevor Richards gave up an unearned run thanks to a Bo Bichette error, but brought his season ERA to 2.44. Things got hairy when Chad Green gave up a lead-off double to start the top of the ninth, but after two strikeouts and a flyout, he picked up his third save of the season.
Toronto only had six hits in Tuesday’s game; however, all but one were of the extra-base variety. Spencer Horwitz hit his third home run of the season, while George Springer hit his ninth of the season. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Ernie Clement, and Addison Barger each had a double. Justin Turner had the team’s other hit, an RBI single (while walking twice).
Up next: The Blue Jay have a chance to at the very worst, split the series on Wednesday. Yusei Kikuchi toes the rubber against Ronel Blanco. As you may remember, Blanco was the pitcher that no-hit the Blue Jays in the second series of the season. Let’s hope the same doesn’t happen on Wednesday.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

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