Blue Jays Two Outs from Being No-Hit, Fall to Threshers 9-2

Clearwater, FL – The Dunedin Blue Jays dropped their third consecutive game, and second to start the series against the Clearwater Threshers on Wednesday night at BayCare Ballpark.

But the biggest storyline was the overall dominance of by the Clearwater pitching staff. Jonathan Petit, Seth Nightingale, and Jonh Henriquez combined for eight no-hit innings, facing just two batters above the minimum. Meanwhile, the Threshers’ lineup took an early lead in the first off Blue Jays starter Rafael Ohashi, one they wouldn’t give up.

Ohashi was able to settle down over the second and third innings, but Clearwater was able to get to him again for one in the fourth and two in the fifth before his day was done. Down 4-0 in the sixth, Dunedin brought in RHP Lazaro Estrada, and Clearwater pounced.

The Threshers put the game out of reach, tacking on five runs in the sixth inning alone, with the help of some Dunedin defensive miscues, extending their lead to nine. LHP Harry Rutkowski came into the game before the inning was over, recording the final out of the inning, and throwing another two scoreless frames on top of that.

Fast-forward to the ninth, and the Blue Jays came back to the plate for the final time, still looking for their first hit. Angel Del Rosario was hit by a pitch to lead the inning off, and Manuel Beltre smoked a grounder to short, that in another situation may have been ruled a hit but went in the books as an error on Bryan Rincon. And finally, with one out, Tucker Toman ruined Clearwater’s no-hit bid, pulling a ball just inside the third base bag for a double down the line, replacing the zeroes in the hit and run columns with ones.

Dunedin would score another on an RBI-groundout by Ryan McCarty, but the Threshers held on for the 9-2 victory. With the win, Clearwater improves to 33-13 on the year, and Dunedin fell to 24-23. The Blue Jays will look for their first win of the series on Thursday night, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and coverage beginning on the Dunedin Blue Jays Radio Network at 6:15 p.m.