TORONTO — Ever seen that Spider-Man pointing meme? Surely you’ve come across the still taken from the 1960’s animated series online at some point, perhaps in the context of two things being eerily similar or reflective of one another. Well, there the Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies were Tuesday night and man the image sure seems applicable.
Contextually, they’re a match, two teams with seemingly boffo lineups underperforming at the plate, relying instead on better than expected pitching, each in possession of a wild-card berth although they probably expected more of themselves, their records a single win apart. And check out these numbers as they headed into the opener of a two-game set at Rogers Centre: the Blue Jays had one more homer, 138-137; the Phillies held slight edges in runs, 550-540; OPS, .746-.742 and hitting with runners in scoring position, .253-.247.
If they’re not seeing one another in the mirror, they’re at least looking at their interleague equivalent.
Fitting, then, that runs were at a premium as Yusei Kikuchi and Zack Wheeler duelled to a stalemate and that the margin of difference came home when Cavan Biggio was hit by a Seranthony Dominguez pitch in the eighth inning of a 2-1 Blue Jays victory.
Full credit to the starters in this one, as Kikuchi allowed only one run over six innings of dominance, touched up for only a Johan Rojas run-scoring double in his final inning of work, while Wheeler surrendered only a George Springer RBI single in the bottom half of the sixth during his seven innings of work.
The only threat of a big inning came in the eighth when Dominguez replaced Wheeler and went Nathan Lukes walk, Whit Merrifield single on a sinking liner that Kyle Schwarber gloved but couldn’t hold on to, Brandon Belt strikeout, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walk, George Springer fielder’s choice, on a tremendous play by Alec Bohm throwing home, and Biggio hit by pitch.
Alejandro Kirk couldn’t add on from there, grounding out to end the frame, but Jordan Romano, fresh off the injured list, retired Bohm, Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos, the latter two both swinging, to end it before a crowd of 42,615.
