The Road Goes On Forever and The Party Never Ends, Game Recap.

Wow.....who knew that we could walk off the field before the final out of the bottom of the ninth? There were a couple of firsts in that game, our first walk off win of the year, our first time to come back after being down in the 7^th. So it was a walk off error.....it was just as sweet as a walk off homer would have been.

The bad news, McGowan gets hit hard for his second straight start and is pulled after the fourth with a sore arm. MRI tomorrow. With Marcum already hurt, if McGowan is hurt it might make it harder to trade AJ. Without McGowan hurt and assuming Marcum comes off the DL after the All-Star break, Parrish would take AJ's spot in the rotation. If, McGowan is hurt and AJ is traded, Purcey would have to be recalled to fill a spot in the rotation. If Marcum and McGowan were we'd need yet someone else to fill out the rotation and the starting staff, which at the moment is a team strength, would become a weakness. So let's hope McGowan doesn't need to miss any time, that a rest over the till after the All-Star break is enough for him.

Also bad....Cito with no right handed relievers worth trusting put Frasor out there to almost destroy any hope of a comeback. We badly need a right hander in the pen that can be trusted to occasionally give us a scoreless inning.

The good news? Well like our last win, we needed the help of opponent errors to win the game. But we also got nine hits and seven walks. And we got some hits with RISP....hitting the over for the first time in awhile.  And, of course, the win keeps the possibility of us entering the All-Star break above .500 alive, as well as the possibility of getting out of last place by the end of the series with the O's.

Let's look at the Fangraph:

As you can see the game was anyone's to win till the O's got two in the third and then it went downhill from there until Rios' triple. Alex looked lost at the plate before that swing but he hit it hard and amazingly it didn't end up in someone's glove. After Wells' single the tide turned towards us but Bynum's error in the 9th gave us the win.

Offensively Inglett, 2 for 4, Wells 2 for 4 and Barajas 2 for 4 looked great. Inglett is batting .310....he's been nothing short of amazing. When Hill comes back I hope Cito can find a way to keep him in the lineup. I don't know what kind of defensive SS he would be but I'd be willing to find out or move Hill to short to keep his bat in the lineup. At the other end of the scale, Scoot is batting .258 and it really is a waste having his bat at the top of the order day after day.

Overbay had another bad day at the plate, 0 for 3 with a walk. Lind went 1 for 4 and, in an unusual move for Cito, was pulled for Wilk as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the ninth, at a moment when we weren't ahead. I hope Lind wasn't hurt.

Jays of the Game.....Rolen gets a .369 wpa from Fangraphs but that was completely for the error at the end of the game.....I can't see giving him JoD for hitting a ball that should have been played. But Rios at .296 (he was a -.059 before his 7^th inning triple), Wells at .223 and BJ at .143 all get JoD status. I would give honorable mention to Brian Tallet for his terrific two innings of relief work. He kept the game close when it could have become a run away.  

Suckage Jay, according to Fangraphs Adam Lind at -.227, beat out McGowan -.220 and Scoot -.155 for the honor. That said Lind got a hit and has raised his batting average to .213 on the season, which considering it was a .053 when he was recalled, isn't so bad. He is hitting .318 in July, but with no walks.

Tomorrow we face Garrett Olson with a 5.04 era, while AJ goes out in what could be his last start for our Jays. We had a good time tonight in the game thread. Hopefully tomorrow's will be just as lively and with just as good a final result.