Game of the Day (5/17/14)

Blue Jays 4, Rangers 2. The still-stalwart Mark Buehrle took on somewhat young, somewhat promising fellow lefty Robbie Ross.

Toronto seized the early lead when Jose Bautista homered with two outs in the first. Buehrle followed that with a spotless bottom of the inning. A single by Kevin Pillar and two walks (Anthony Gose and Jose Reyes) loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the second before Ross escaped; Buehrle continued in his characteristically efficient performance, allowing only a single. However, the Rangers rallied to tie the game in the third on a walk to Leonys Martin and singles by Luis Sardinas and Michael Choice. Elvis Andrus hit into a double play to prevent them from pulling ahead.

Both starters were perfect in the fourth. The top of the fifth started with a walk by Reyes, who moved to second on a groundout and third on a passed ball (the latter advancement coming with Shawn Tolleson having relieved Ross). Bautista was intentionally walked, and Edwin Encarnacion flied to center; Reyes tagged in an attempt to score and was thrown out at home to end the inning. Each of the next three half innings saw one runner reach with two outs and get left at first.

Aaron Poreda relieved in the top of the seventh and was promptly set upon by the Jays, starting with a Gose double. Gose stole third one out later and scored on a Melky Cabrera groundout to put Toronto ahead 2-1. Alexi Ogando then took the mound and loaded the bases with two walks and an infield hit, which required Neal Cotts to enter and prompt a flyout from Dioner Navarro. Buehrle quickly worked through two outs in the bottom of the seventh, but then served up singles to Robinson Chirinos and Martin, putting the tying run in scoring position. Aaron Loup relieved and was greeted by an RBI single from Sardinas; Steve Delabar came on to retire Choice and end the inning with the score tied once more.

The tie did not survive long; Cotts allowed doubles to Pillar and Reyes in the eighth to hand the lead back to the Jays. Delabar struck out the side in the bottom of the inning, and Toronto added insurance in the ninth. Bautista was hit by Jason Frasor's first pitch; Encarnacion nearly hit into a double play, but Mitch Moreland dropped the relay throw. Brett Lawrie doubled Encarnacion to third, and Navarro brought him in on a sac fly. Casey Janssen set the Rangers down in order to secure the save.

This loss was a whole-team effort by the Rangers: they used 16 players in the game, and only four of them had positive WPAs. Two of those were the 8 and 9 hitters, and the others were the starter who was pulled in the fifth inning and the emergency reliever thrown into the game in his place. Despite those unlikely contributions, the middle of the order and the front-line relief corps failed to produce any positives between them, and it's hard to win a game if your best players are universally unhelpful.