Marco Estrada rebounded nicely from a rough first inning against the red-hot Seattle Mariners.
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Liriano allowed a season-worst seven runs in two-plus innings in his start Wednesday night against the Cleveland Indians, a game the Blue Jays won 8-7.
“As hot as we were with the bat in Philadelphia”, Mariners manager Scott Servais said, “we were just as cold here in Toronto”.
Gibbons is a big fan of the quirky Biagini, even more so we’re thinking after his excellent outing on Friday and the impressive stats as a starter that go with it.
Bautista, who hit a three-run homer against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday, hit a two-run shot against the Mariners on Friday. But that alone won’t do much reduce the gaudy price tag of the team’s disabled list five weeks into the season.
Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz hit a two-run homer but Seattle’s offense came up empty after the first. Toronto DH Kendrys Morales (tight left hamstring) missed his third straight game. Jean Segura led off with a double and Cruz drilled a one-out homer into the center field party deck, his eighth.
Biagini was anything but lonely in the early going with teammate Justin Smoak making a nice stab of a line drive off by Ben Gamel down at first base in the first inning to lend a helping hand. Pearce drove in Bautista with a sacrifice fly and Goins cashed in Smoak with a single.
Jose Bautista is tied with two other players with 10 hard outs, which trails only Detroit’s Nicholas Castellanos and Baltimore’s Manny Machado.
Seattle put runners at second and third with one out in the third but couldn’t score. “We’ve got a lot of guys on the DL right now and we’ve just got to grind away until we get those guys back”. In his two major-league starts now, the big right-hander has pitched nine innings and has yet to surrender a run. “I think things are going to turn around here pretty quickly”. When they face the Mariners, they will be trying to win two games in a row for only the third time this season. The Mariners have not had a winning record at any point this season. Seattle OF Guillermo Heredia started in left field after missing the start Thursday because of visa issues entering Canada.
He has never faced the Blue Jays.
“It’s more important, for sure”, Travis said of the ability to execute when the big boys are out. He made six starts for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016. Fellow star Robinson Cano had a quadriceps injury, but was able to homer in both games and was 4-for-5 on Wednesday.
With Thursday’s news lefty Francisco Liriano was heading to the disabled list with shoulder inflammation, the Blue Jays now have more than $83 million on the DL, essentially half their opening-day payroll.
Tulowitzki, meanwhile, could be nearing a return from a DL stint for a hamstring injury that began in late April and has thus far cost the veteran shortstop 17 games. In 11.2, he’s allowed 5 hits, 1 home run, 5 walks with 15 strikeouts.
Liriano had proven to be one of the most consistent left-handers in the game during his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates, in which he reestablished his status as such after struggling with the Minnesota Twins in 2011 and 2012. Bolsinger was 1-1 with a 1.46 ERA in four games at Buffalo, including two starts.
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Working around the unsafe Mariners lineup, Biagini went six-plus innings of shutout ball.
