That was needed.
Brandon Morrow was great, except for a rough 5th inning, when he seemed to be getting too much movement on his pitches. They were just sliding out of the strikezone. In that 4th he walked the first 2 batters, both on 4 pitches, then Jesus Montero singled to load the bases. A ground out to Kawasaki (who didn't get enough on the throw to second to make it a double play) scored a run. Another walk and sac fly scored another run and it looked like this was going to be the bad inning that cost us the game. His 4th walk loaded the bases again, but Michael Morse was nice enough to fly out to Emilio Bonifacio in CF, to end the inning, with the Jays still up by a run.
Brandon went 8 innings, gave up 3 hits, 5 walks (4 in that 5th inning), 2 earned, with 8 strikeouts. A great start when we really needed one.
Our offense was great, 15 hits, 10 runs, 4 walks. And really, we could have had more hits and runs. We had a couple of balls hit to the wall that would have been home runs if the dome was closed, and a few other hard hit balls that found gloves. Everyone had hits except, Edwin Encarnacion (0 for 4, walk RBI), who had 2 hard hit balls find gloves and Emilio Bonifacio (0 for 4, k) who still looked lost at the plate, but at least had 2 steals.
A few of the notables:
- Rajai Davis started the game with a double. Gibby had Melky Cabrera bunt him to second (a move I hate, never bunt in the first and, beyond that, you gotta figure the odds are better for Rajai to steal third than Melky put down a good bunt). Then Jose Bautista popped up, just to the edge of the outfield grass, but Dustin Ackley made an awkward catch and Rajai tagged up and scored. Very heads up by Rajai. He had a couple of hard hits caught too, or he would have been better than 1 for 5.
- Melky Cabrera was 3 for 4, plus the bunt, with his first home run of the year. His teammates gave him the silent treatment after. Glad to see they can still have fun. He looked much better at the plate.
- Jose Bautista was 1 for 2, with 2 walks, one intentional, plus a steal.
- J.P. Arencibia was 2 for 5. He had one of the flies that was caught at the wall, and a line drive hit hard right at the third baseman. Best he's looked in a while at the plate.
- Mark DeRosa, who has been taking a beating around here, sorry Mark, went 3 for 5, 1 home run, and 2 doubles. One double was popup that fell between 3 fielders, but the other was hard hit. The home run was to dead center, he hit that a long way. And he made a couple of nice plays in the field. A nice day bought his batting average up over .200.
- Maicer Izturis went 3 for 4, making better contact than he has in a long time. Also made a really nice play at second. Good to see.
- And our All-Star SS (write his name in folks) went 2 for 3, 2 RBI, a walk and his 4th steal. Gritty as hell.
Being fair, it's easier to get 15 hits off Joe Sanders than Felix Hernandez, but I'm still hoping this carries over.
Jays of the Day are DeRosa (.201 WPA) and Morrow (.103). I'm also giving one to Cabrera, even though he had just a .083, I'm happy to see him have a few good swings of the bat. Honorable mention to Izturis and Kawasaki.
Suckage: No one....when was the last time we didn't give out a suckage award? Low mark was Edwin (-.043) but he hit the ball hard 3 times.
Tomorrow we start a series in Tampa Bay. Mark Buehrle (1-2, 6.43) vs. Jeremy Hellickson (1-2, 4.71). Hopefully the good batting continues.
Nice GameThread again, 37 of us posted 627 comments. I led the way. Much nicer to talk about a win.
# | Commenter | # Comments |
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1 | Tom Dakers | 105 |
2 | rob.magnificent | 68 |
3 | shortofbrillant | 59 |
4 | ABsteve | 56 |
5 | GatorJay | 36 |
6 | fishedin | 33 |
7 | Belisarius | 32 |
8 | JaysCraze | 31 |
9 | masterkembo | 25 |
10 | Qd6 | 24 |
11 | Janz_V84 | 22 |
12 | Bowling_Guy25 | 18 |
13 | domefan | 17 |
14 | Alan F. | 15 |
15 | Carm | 12 |
16 | Nadia | 8 |
17 | hansdampf | 8 |
18 | JaysfanAtlanta | 8 |
19 | Super Bass Hallways | 7 |
20 | Vagabond13 | 6 |
21 | llamameeljueves | 6 |
22 | elpikiman | 4 |
23 | KevinInCT | 4 |
24 | hoph | 4 |
25 | khaleeji | 3 |
26 | Playoffs!!!!1 | 3 |
27 | bluejays13 | 3 |