That game had some good moments, most of them offensively, but boy it left a bad taste in the mouth. Roy Halladay was not good. The first inning he gave up 5 singles and 3 runs. Mostly bad luck, nothing was hit hard. Bloop singles and bad luck but still cost us. He pitched a very good 2nd and 3rd. But then in the 4th he gave up 3 more soft hits and 3 more runs, helped out by an unlucky throwing error by Travis Snider. He was trying to throw out B.J. Upton at 3rd base. The throw was good but glanced off Upton as he was about to slide. Pat Tabler did 20 minutes on what a terrible throw it was. It should have been lower so that the cut off man could have decoyed the batter and stopped him from going to second on the throw, but he almost had Upton.
The 6th inning Doc was hit hard, a walk and then a Carlos Pena homer. The next batter hit a hard line drive single but a strike out and a double play ended things. In the 6th B.J. Upton started the inning with a double, moved to 3rd on a passed ball but was stranded there with help of a very good play by Aaron Hill . It was a bad day for Doc, I would have pulled him after the 5th, save his arm a little but I think Cito was hoping we could score some more for him.
Brandon League gave up a homer to the first batter, then pitched 2 good innings. Shawn Camp wasn't so lucky in the 9th giving up 3 runs.
Offensively we had a great second inning, scoring 5 runs, 4 on a Rod Barajas grand slam. We could have had more runs but Lyle Overbay hit into a double play when we reloaded the bases. We got another run in the 3rd and one more in the 8th on Randy Ruiz' 4th homer. Ruiz had 3 hits today, including an infield single. That goes with his stolen base as what will be one of my favorite moments of the season. You would figure 7 runs would be enough on a day that Doc starts.
Defensively, we are suffering from a real lack of range in the outfield and Jose Bautista faked out Marco Scutaro by not catching a grounder that he very much should have. Someone's going to have to explain to him that he has to make all the plays he can moving to his left. It is an easier play for him moving towards first than it for the SS moving away from first.
Jays of the Day are Barajas (.201 WPA) and Ruiz (.140). Suckage Jays Doc (-.560, his second suckage start in a row) and Overbay (-.140).
Tomorrow Brett Cecil (5-2, 4.58) goes against James Shields (7-10, 3.81). Our offense has been great fun to watch the last little while. Less so the defense. A change from last year. I am really enjoying watching Ruiz, he's not fast but he hustles. I'd like to see him play first sometime. And Moonraker is going to continue to be a favorite.
I'm not too worried about Doc, all pitchers, even amazing ones like Doc go thru a down time sometime during the season, but he has thrown a lot of pitches this season. It is possible he has a tired arm. Carl Crawford left the game with "tightness in his lower back". They won't know until later how bad it is but I wouldn't mind if he missed the next couple of games.
The game thread was fun, expect for the extended discussion about Street Fighter 2. And I thought the Dungeons and Dragons talk was too much.