Let Me See If I've Got This....

Last start David Purcey throws a great complete game, giving up 1 run and striking out 11 and we lost. Today, he goes 3 innings, gives up 5 runs on 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts and we win. I just want to make sure I know how things work around here. Purcey good, we lose, Purcey awful, we win. Cool.

As terrible as Purcey was, once again, our pen was great. 6 innings of 2 hit, shutout ball. Tallet did give up a sac fly when he came in the 4th with no one out and a runner on. And he gave up two hits in his second inning of work but neither scored. Then Cy pitched 2 perfect innings to pick up the win. Very nice to see Cy used as more than a LOOGY. Snakeface pitched a great 8th picking up his 21th hold; he is having what must be one of the top 2 or 3 seasons by any Jay setup man. And then BJ got his 26th save, with two strikeouts and a popup. After his last very shaky save, boy it was nice to see him throw so well.

Offensively, in our first four innings we got 8 hits but only 1 run. And not only did we get 8 hits but our outs were very hard hit balls. We were very unlucky not to have 4 or 5 runs by the end of the 4th. I really felt this was going to be another one of those maddening games where we club the ball all day and yet don't score enough to win.

But the 5th changed that, after a walk to Scoot, Bautista hit his first homer for us. After the amount of complaining (yes from me too) after we picked him up for Diaz, it is good to see him hitting. After his 4 for 5 today he is 7 for 12 is our last 3 games. Then Rios homered. Back to back, when was the last time we did that. But that was the end of our scoring in the 5th and we were still a run down. And I  thought we missed our chance.

Then in the 6th Rolen walked and Overbay hit his 12th homer of the year. Put me in the group that thinks a first baseman has to hit 20 plus, but today he had enough to give us a lead.  And that was all we needed, though an insurance run in the 8th didn't hurt.

The Fangraph, once again a thing of beauty. If I could frame it and put it up over the fireplace.....well, the wife would stop me but still:

Jays of the Day, a whole mess of them, a team effort: Lyle (.239 WPA), Rios (.198), Cy (.155), Bautista (.151) and Snakeface (.124).  Honorable mention Tallet (two good innings), and Lind (3 for 4). Suckage Jays: Purcey (-.299) , Barajas (-.133, 0 for 5 and at the wrong moments) and Mac (-.122, 0 for 4).

And the obligatory Cito rant, you've missed them haven't you?  In the 7th Wells and Lind singled. Cito replaced Lind with Wilk as a pinch runner, mostly to get Wilks glove into left. Now Cito apparently has already forgotten the game against the Yankees when Giradi replaced Giambi with Cody Ranson as a defensive replacement while the Yankees were in front. When the Jays came back it was Giambi's spot in the order that came to back with 2 outs in the 9th and the winning run on. Ransom was in that spot and he struck out to end the game.

So in this case, Cito forgetting history was almost doomed to repeat it. Fortunately we weren't behind when Wilk came to bat with the bases loaded and two out, but those extra insurance runs wouldn't have hurt. My big question is why didn't Cito pinch hit for Wilk when the Twins brought in a lefty? We have extra players because it is September. Why not pinch hit? Yeah Wilk is better defensively than anyone on our bench but not massively better. But, ok, he lets Wilk strike out swinging like a rusty gate, as we used to say. As it turned out it didn't matter but.......

Anyway, a great night offensively for us, 17 hits, 3 homers. Maybe we can do it again tomorrow for AJ against Nick Blackburn (9-8, 3.75). As Hugo said, in the game thread, if we were still in the race, this would be the kind of game that would have the fans going wild. As it is, it was a nice win.