Sinatra Was Swinging, All the Drunks They Were Singing / Jays 6, Yankees 1

by hugo on Jun 5, 2010 1:53 AM EDT in Toronto Blue Jays Game Recaps

The Jays took game 1 of this weekend series tonight at the Rogers Centre behind a superb pitching performance and the same type of offense we've come to expect over the past few weeks.

On the Mound:

Brett Cecil was extraordinary against a very tough lineup. He really had his stuff working, going 8 innings strong with 5 Ks and just 1 walk. Cecil kept the ball down, getting 12 grounders and just 6 balls in the air. The Yankees managed just 5 hits against him. The one run that scored was on a double play. Brett has strung together four straight fantastic starts (and four straight wins) since his drubbing against Texas and now has 7 great starts, 1 middling one, and just the one poor one and also has 45 Ks and just 13 walks and 4 home runs allowed over his 57 innings. A breakout season in the works, or just a hot couple of months, either way its been great fun.

At the Plate:

Old friend A.J. Burnett was pitching for the Yankees and the Jays were not kind to him, going yard three times and scoring as many runs (6) as Burnett made it through. The culprits: if you haven't guessed one was Jose Bautista by now, you haven't been paying attention. Bautista went yard twice to plate three on the night, added a double for good measure and scored on a wild pitch, and walked in his 4th plate appearance. Not a bad day at the office. Edwin Encarnacion added a solo home run, and a John Buck sacrifice fly accounted for the other run. Even though 4 of the 6 runs scored on home runs, the name of the game for the Jays was patience as they walked 5 times. Fred Lewis, Lyle Overbay, and Buck were the only Jays not to reach tonight.

From the Pen:

Jason Frasor pitched the 9th and was just ok walking one and getting one out on strikes and the other two on fly balls. As my coach used to say, any out in the 9th inning is a good out. Particularly the way the Jays have been going recently.

In the Field:

The defense kept a clean sheet with the infield getting most of the work, and Alex Gonzalez doing his usual fine job at shortstop.

With the win, which the Jays needed to keep even with Boston (who thumped Baltimore), our corvid heroes draw to within 4 1/2 games of first place and 2 1/2 from the wild card. After the Rays series, it'd be nice to win this one and of course beating the Yankees is always a lot of fun. Tomorrow afternoon the red hot Andy Pettitte takes the mound for New York while Ricky Romero pitches for the Jays in what promises to be a great matchup of great southpaws past, present, and future.

Title from the incredible song "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues.

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Comments

Can't wait till tomorrow

I think we need to get excited about this team.

One more starter (unless Tallet is the guy) and we are golden. I don’t see huge holes in this team. I think I have the blinders on and may be a bit of a homer right now, but this team is awesome.

It is fun to watch when young guys are succeeding and the team is playing well. If only we could have got one more win out of that Rays series.

by Rhinos on Jun 5, 2010 2:13 AM EDT reply actions

Big Picture

Another great game from the boys tonight, although its still wayyyy too early to talk wildcard, division crown imo. everyone has been talking about how this stretch is going to be the telling tale of our season and so on im sure weve all heard it enough but its time we took a took a breath, remembered that this is only year 1 of the AA era and realize that making the playoffs this year wasnt even on our radar… most people were hoping we wouldnt lose 100. after 4 games vs the rays and yanks the jays are not only proving they can hit it out with teh best of them, but also pitch with the big boys as well. with the core of our offense in lind, hill, wells, lewis, snider (give him time hes going be mashing for us one day) and our staff in romero, marcum, cecil, heck even mcgowan all under team control for the next couple of years the future is definetly bright, and we havent even begun to talk about wallace, drabek etc. sure we might not make the playoffs this year but ladies and gentleman, for the first time since the early 90s baseball in toronto is alive and well!! now if only the fans can come out and give this team the support it deserves…

It's good to love to win but it's better to hate to lose.

by David Sadat on Jun 5, 2010 2:33 AM EDT reply actions

funny thing is, if the Jays happen to sneak into the playoff picture this year

it’ll have more to do with Ricciardi than AA.

by REMO on Jun 5, 2010 12:30 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't know about that because

while most of the players on this team came from JP’s drafting,signing and trading, they never made the playoffs under JP. Not even once. It took AA just one year with a little tinkering here and there and one big trade to get the Jays into the playoffs again, if it does happen.

by hrv1978 on Jun 5, 2010 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions

The one big trade

Is what is holding us out of a playoff spot at the moment. Add Doc to Romero, Marcum and Cecil and we have the best starting rotation in the league, no matter who the fifth guy is.

by Tom Dakers on Jun 5, 2010 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not disagreeing

I was just responding to what REMO said.

by hrv1978 on Jun 5, 2010 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Wait wait wait.
so AA is keeping us out of the playoffs?
FIRE HIM!

Life as a Toronto Sports Fan?... *sigh*... It is what it is...

by JohnnyG on Jun 5, 2010 12:46 PM EDT up reply actions

that's flawed reasoning hrv

No team with a new GM can rationally give all the credit to the new guy just because it was on his watch.

it is an unanswerable puzzle whether or not the Jays would have gotten, for instance, the same production out of SS and C if JP had filled those jobs instead of AA. Or any other variable you might consider.

It’s a fool’s game to speculate on that.

It’s also true that the Jays fielded very good teams three years in a row which had more than their share of bad luck (karma for JP’s poor attitude?) – it can be argued that any of those teams was as good or better than this one.

What can’t be debated is that over 2/3 of the current 25 man roster are here because of JP (Wells counting because he’d have left as a FA without a new contract)

by TamRa on Jun 6, 2010 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions