A's 2 Jays 4 in 12 innings
I really shouldn't say this, after just 1 start, but I think we've found a starter. Brian Tallet was terrific. Second pitch of the game he takes a grounder off his pitching hand and, understandably throws it into right field. After that he was terrific. 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, just 1 walk. Yeah I know, let's see him start a couple more times before we decide he is in the rotation for the rest of the season.
Our bullpen was, once again, just terrific. Shutout work from Shawn Camp, Scott Downs, BJ Ryan, Cy Carlson and Jason Frasor for 6.2 innings. Yeah we are all on the edge of our seats for any appearance by Ryan and I'll admit I wish Cito would put him out there in a couple of low leverage situations, but he got thru his inning with just a walk given up. Frasor got his 2nd win of the season working in his 3rd straight game. Oh I hope we can give him tomorrow off.
Offensively, we only got 7 hit but we took 9 walks. Scoot, Bautista and Overbay each took 2 walks. The stars for us were Moonraker who drove in 2 runs, 1 in the 4th and 1 in the 6th and Lyle Overbay who was the only Jay with 2 hits, a double and a walk off homer in the 12th. Nice for Overbay to get the walk-off on Overbay bobble-head day at Rogers Center.
Yeah we should have won it earlier. In the 9th Scoot lead off with a walk. He move up to second, tagging up on Aaron Hill's fly out to deep center. The line between bravery and stupidity is a very fine one. Marco was safe by an eyelash. Then he stole 3rd easily. He darn near won the game by himself when the throw from the catcher almost went into left field.
So Scoot at 3rd, 1 out. Rios took a walk. Then Vernon had a terrible at bat, he popped up a pitch that it was lucky to make it to the stands, but then he ground out. And Lind struck out. That was that.
Jays of the Day? Overbay! (.453 WPA), Downs (.329), Carlson (.204), Ryan (.143), Scutaro (.132), Camp (.128) and Tallet for just toughing it out. Suckage Jays, well there is a bunch of those too. Wells (-.333), Hill (-.170), Lind (.161), Rios (.124) and Barajas (-.102).
Tomorrow we find out if we are continuing our streak of winning series in the rubber game with Ricky Romero (1-0, 2.57) going against the A's lefty Dallas Braden (1-1, 3.75). Both teams will be wanting their starter to go deep into the game because we've both had a lot of relief innings pitched the last couple of days.
And just cause I like saying it so much, we are in first place, 1.5 games up on the Orioles. We are 9-4. And if that isn't enough good news for you, the Yankees are losing 20-2, in the 6th inning, at this moment. Life is good.