Two Games, Two Wins, Rod Barajas Walk Off Sac Fly
by Tom Dakers on Apr 7, 2009 11:19 PM EDT
in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps
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PrintTigers 4 Jays 5
Wow. When you just have one hit and are down by 3 in the bottom of the 8th you aren't really expecting a win. Edwin Jackson had us again tonight but then in the 8th Scott Rolen led off with a homer, then Lyle got on on an error. After Rod Barajas popped out, Tigers took out Jackson. That was the best news of the night, they have one awful bullpen. Bobby Seay got Snider to hit into a force out at second. Then the Tigers brought in former Jay Brandon Lyon. Lyon was terrible. Scoot singled and Aaron Hill hit a 3 run homer to give us the lead.
Man it is great to have Hill back, Inglett was good last year but Hill has had an amazing defensive play in both games. And the home run. Anyway let's put in the fangraph here....a thing of beauty it is.
Unfortunately Hill's home run didn't turn out the be the game winning hit. In the bottom of the 9th BJ Ryan came in and gave up a game tying homer. It is too bad that he gets a blown save in his first chance. I know the phone-in shows and, likely, our comment sections will be calling for him to removed from the closer role, but let's not get too worked up about 1 blown save. Apparently he was hitting 89 on the radar gun and that's about what he was doing last year.
But lucky for us, Brandon Lyon was still pitching for the Tigers. A one out walk to Lind (pinch run for by Jose Bautista, is he fast?) and a single by Rolen to give us runners on the corners. Then comes the thing I don't understand, the Tigers walked Lyle Overbay to load the bases. I guess they don't scout anymore in the major leagues but Lyle was a double play machine last year.
Now I'm not Rod Barajas biggest fan, but the guy came thru when we needed him. A deep sac fly and we is 2-0 and in sole posession of first place. Yeah, I know, 2 games in, but hey.....I might not get to say this much this year.
Jays of the Day: Hill (.570 WPA), Rolen (.183) and Rod Barajas (.129). Honorable mention to David Purcey who pitched well enough to get the win but we didn't score for him. 7 innings, 5 hits, 3 run, 2 earned, 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. The wild pitch on the intentional base on balls hurt a lot. And Barajas' throwing error on the same play was bad too.
Suckage Jays? BJ gets the first Miguel Batista Award of the year with a -.189 WPA and though it hurts me to say it, Travis Snider gets the Hinske Award with a -.136 on an 0 for 3 leaving 2 guys on base.
Tomorrow night Jesse Litsch starts for the Jays while Zach Miner goes for the Tigers. Let's keep it going.
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what a game!!
small crowd, likely due to the alcohol restrictions, but we were all going ballistic when Hill hit that dinger. Even when we had 1 hit through 7, I never lost faith. Purcey had a battling performance and deserved better, but the Jays had several hard-hit balls go for naught while the Tigers were hitting groundball singles. The Jays deserved this one!
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Good win
Nice to see a comeback early. That does nothing but help the confidence. It’ sad to see the leafs and raptors (both losing teams) draw more people then the jays thou. Lets go for 3 in a row!!
I will say
Moonraker looked overmatched when they brought in the lefty from pen (Seay) to pitch to him in the 8th. It was only one at-bat, but I felt like he was guessing and was a little lucky to make the weak contact he did. Of course, he’ll never learn to hit major-league lefties except by doing it….
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
and I also forgot to mention
Lind didn’t have any hits tonight, but he had a great at-bat in the 9th which lead to the game-winning run. He fouled several pitches off before working a 3-2 walk and it was just the at-bat you wanted to see in the situation. Not as sexy as the three-run homerun he hit opening day, but I really enjoyed it.
"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman
Wasn't the error...
On Purcey? The highlights on bluejays.com shows Barajas fielding the wild pitch well coming off the wall, throwing to Purcey at the plate, then Purcey throwing high and wide over second.
Either way, Purcey was terrific – I wish I could have watched! I haven’t had a chance to watch any games yet really, so I’m stoked it’s playing on ALL Snet channels tonight. I have another year-end banquet to attend tonight, but I might make up an excuse to show up about 3 hours late just to watch the Jays game.
One of those sillinesses in scoring
If Purcey had allowed the run on his wild pitch to the plate it would have been earned. Instead he allowed it on his wild pitch to second so it’s unearned.
"He almost has to start. Do you believe in miracles?"
I agree
If the pitcher lobs a soft floater over the middle of the plate and it get crushed, that’s an error on his part (in my mind) and it’s an earned run. If the pitcher throws wild on a pitch and a run scores, that’s an error on his part and it’s an earned run. If the pitcher throws wild any other time and a run scores, it’s unearned. Makes no sense to me. If the pitcher screws up, it should go against his ERA.
If the pitcher screws up ...
If the pitcher screws up pitching, runs should count against the ERA.
If the pitcher screws up fielding, runs are giveaways and not earned by the opposing team’s batters, and thus should not count against the ERA. It should count against the pitcher’s RA, though. However, no one pays attention to RAs.
Didn't B.J. get the win and not Purcey?
Ryan got the win last nite not Purcey.
Purcey looked solid so hopefully he can follow Litsch’s development path.
the rotation may not be so bad after all, fingers crossed for Richmond and Romero.
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