Jeff Niemann did his best Tommy John impression tonight, relying on his defense more than most pitchers would dream of. 27 batters faced and only three defensive independent results, and 24 balls in play. Amazingly Niemann was relatively unscathed with only four hits allowed. Quite a bit of good news from this start:
1. This isn't a typical Niemann start, otherwise I would be concerned moving forward.
2. The runs results were just what we needed when facing Halladay. Seriously, great night for a weird start.
3. We beat the Jays, therefore helping our playoff odds.
4. We beat their very best chance of winning a game in this series. They probably win one of the next two, but a series win would be huge, huge heading into Texas.
5. Seriously, we beat Halladay and didn't score a ton. Woo.
6. Niemann threw 69% strikes with his fastballs, 59% sliders, and 55% change-ups. Wow.
7. It also looks like a 35/65 split on two-seamers and four-seamers.
8. Maddon's bullpen management was pretty clean. He played the matchups and it worked. I'm shocked.