The Toronto Blue Jays made dubious history on Wednesday against the Miami Marlins, losing a 14-11 slugfest in what was their second “home” game to be played in Buffalo, New York. The Blue Jays became the first team in Major League Baseball history to lose a game in which they recorded 18 hits and launched seven home runs, according to the experts at STATS Inc.
Because you may have passed out after watching the Marlins play the Blue Jays in favor of another game, we can highlight five other likes of what was the wildest game of the night.
1. The outburst of Blue Jays was total team effort
It’s hard to get 18 hits and seven home points as a team if you rely on one or two fights to do all the heavy lifting. Carefully, the Blue Jays received contributions from across the board on Wednesday night.
Eight different Blue Jays hitters recorded at least one hit, and six Toronto hitters had multiple hits. The Blue Jays also had six homer players: Travis Shaw (twice), Teoscar Hernandez, Rowdy Tellez, Danny Jansen, Vladimir Guerrero, and Bo Bichette, who made his own history.
2. Bichette has a night to remember
By STATS Inc. Bichette became the first shortstop in the modern era to reach base six times, hitting a homer and stealing two bases in the same game. Bichette had five hits on the night, including his fourth home game of the season. That blast came in the eighth inning.
What kind of impact can a single enormous game have on the statistics of a battery? Bichette came in at .286 / .314 / .551 that night. He baptized no .352 / .386 / .648.
Marlins take the opposite approach
Given that Toronto put on a Home Run Derby, it would be fair to think that the Marlins did the same. They did not. After all, the Marlins recorded only one extra-base hit all night: a three-run homer by Brian Anderson in the first inning. The other 13 hits from Miami were singles.
Jonathan Villar, Matt Joyce, and Jon Berti each had two nights with two hits, while Jesus Aguilar recorded three knots. It should be noted that the Marlins also ran six times.
4. Miami blows big lead, restores
To be clear, this was not a totally-and-again slugfest. The Marlins jumped forward to an early lead, taking advantage of the wildness of Toronto rookie starter Nate Pearson to take a 3-0 advantage after the first inning. A third of five runs put the Marlins up 8-0.
From there, things were shaken.
Miami starter Jordan Yamamoto delivered four runs before going into the fourth inning, and the ragtag collection of relievers that followed did little to keep the lead. Nick Vincent gave up a few runes; like Brian Moran and Brad Boxberger too. James Hoyt gave up one run himself. Add it all up, and the Miami Bulls allowed seven runs in six-plus innings of work.
The ineffectiveness of the Miami bullpen is not too surprising: that group was the one most affected by its COVID-19 outbreak, leading to a series of claims and promotions for exemptions.
5. Buffalo stays perfect at extra innings
Perhaps it’s fitting that the Blue Jays’ home stadium this season is generally reserved for their Triple-A branch. In both of the games played so far, the Blue Jays have gone into extra innings, where the runner-on-second rule that lent this season to the minors has raised its head .
The Blue Jays were prevalent Tuesday night, winning 5-4 in 10 innings. They were not very happy on Wednesday, as it turned out, with the Marlins striking consecutive hits to start the 10th inning and build up a two-run lead. The Marlins would add one more before the Blue Jays came to terms. Toronto then did not make much noise at the bottom of the frame.
The Blue Jays will now host Florida’s other team, the Tampa Bay Rays, for three games starting on Friday.
