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Instant Reaction: Three home runs power Blue Jays to win over Tigers
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Photo credit: © Rick Osentoski - USA Today
Ryley Delaney
May 23, 2024, 21:30 EDTUpdated: May 24, 2024, 08:30 EDT
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What a wild game that was.
On Thursday evening, the Blue Jays started a four-game series against the Detroit Tigers, defeating their geographical rivals 9-1 on what happened to be one of the weirdest broadcasts you’ll ever see.
With technical issues due to a power outage in Detroit, the first half of this game was… not great from a broadcast point of view. Someone who was great was Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who hit his second home run of the season to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead.
Once the broadcast returned, the Tigers had runners on second and third, and Wenceel Pérez singled up the middle, driving in one run but not a second as Kevin Kiermaier threw out Carson Kelly at the plate.
Although the Tigers tied the game, it was short lived as Daulton Varsho hit his eighth home run of the season, a two-run shot, that gave the Jays the lead back. Don’t look now, but he’s had a good run of games as of late.
The Blue Jays added a ton more runs in the final two innings, including a Bo Bichette and Justin Turner single that drove in one, but the biggest hit of the last two innings was Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s fifth home run of the season.

Things worth mentioning…

Kevin Gausman carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, before Javier Báez hit a single to break up that bid. Still, it was a great game for the ace, as he finished with a line of 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K which brought his season ERA to 4.47.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa also had a cycle watch, hitting a home run in his first plate appearance and a triple in his second plate appearance. Unfortunately, he flew out in his final two plate appearances.
Zach Pop was given a rather high-leverage outing, generating three balls in play that all resulted in outs. His ERA now sits at 3.60.
Trevor Richards once again posted a clean inning, bringing his season ERA down to 2.78, while Tim Mayza gave up two hits but pitched a scoreless inning to bring his season ERA down to 6.32.
Don’t look now, but the Blue Jays have won four of their last five games, scoring a total of 32 runs while giving up just 13 runs. Maybe, just maybe, this is the season turnaround John Schneider and Ross Atkins were talking about. They are also 2-0 with four homers since reintroducing the home run jacket.
Props to Dan Shulman and Joe Siddall on the broadcast. The power outage was less than ideal, as the audio was quite terrible and out of sync, with fewer camera angles than usual. However, they still managed to make this an entertaining broadcast.
Up next: The Blue Jays have a chance to at least tie the series on Friday, as they’ll face the Tigers for the second of four at 6:40 PM ET. Alek Manoah will get the ball and is looking to go seven innings pitched for the third consecutive game.
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

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