Roy Halladay and Jays Beat Rays

Blue Jays 5 Rays 2

That as a nice easy win. The Jays got 5 in the first 3 innings and Roy Halladay made it stand up. Raise your hand if you thought Lyle Overbay would make the perfect cleanup hitter. He had a 2 run homer in the first and the game was never in doubt after that. 

Doc pitched like Doc, 8 innings, 8 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, no walks and 6 strikeouts. He was just great, once we got the lead he would give up base runners but once runners got on he shut things down. He did get some help from Rod Barajas who threw out Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton stealing. Rod has had a terrible year with that bat but he really has a great arm when it is needed. Those were very big caught stealings. Doc did give up a solo homer to Gregg Zaun, but then he hit him with a pitch as well so I'll forgive him.

Offensively, after the 5 runs in the first 3 innings James Shields shut us down but by then it was too late. As well as Overbay's 2 run homer, Adam Lind had a solo shot and Marco Scutaro and Joe Inglett drove in a run each. Everyone in the order had at least 1 hit except for Aaron Hill (who looks lost at the plate right now) and Edwin Encarnacion. Vernon Wells had a nice opposite field hit and then went back to trying to pull everything. He does so much better when he remembers there is a right field to hit to. He did pull one that I thought was going to go out, but it came up short. It seemed like the ball was really carrying well to center and right field but not so much to left. 

Joe Inglett had a nice RBI double but he miss played a fly ball to right that carried better than he thought it would and went over his head, then he booted it when he got to it off the wall. It was ruled a double plus an error but it could have been called two errors and it cost Doc a run. But then we won easy so didn't matter. 

Jays of the Day are Doc (.227 WPA) and Lyle (.171). Joe Inglett came close (.095) but the bad play in right field cost him a JoD. Rod Barajas deserves honorable mention for the 2 throw outs.  No Suckage Jays, Aaron Hill came closest (-.059). 

We had great fun in the game thread, discussing marriage, Japanese animation, law and the evils of my part of the world, moles and the eating there of (does it seem to anyone else that Jessef has very strange interests in eating?) and Dungeons & Dragons which is now a banned subject around here. Occasionally we even talked about baseball. It was great fun and thanks everyone for joining in. After the game my wife and I went out for a couple of drinks, for the first time in a long while and played name that tune at the bar. Unfortunately 80's crap rock is not my strong suit. So write off any typos to the slight drunkenness of the person at the keyboard. 

Tomorrow we have a night game, Brian Tallet (5-6, 4.85) gets one of his irregular starts while Scott Kazmir (6-7, 6.50) goes for the Rays. How someone with the stuff that Kazmir has can have a 6.50 ERA I have no idea. Please Cito even though the Rays are starting a lefty, I am begging you, don't bat Millar cleanup. Please.