A very fun game and fun series. Nice to see we can win some. One of those series that whatever happened you knew that people would rag on the Jays. If they lost people would have said 'told you so, they are a last place team'. Now that they swept the series, the same folks will say 'they can only win when it doesn't matter anymore'. I always wonder what these folks want, them to stop trying or what?
Scott Richmond pitched ok, not great, not terrible. 5 innings, 5 hits, 4 walks and 2 homers. One of the homers was a massive shot by Matt Wieters. I haven't seen one hit that deep in Rogers Center in a long time. Our bullpen was terrific again. We got a shutout inning each from Casey Janssen, Josh Roenicke, Brandon League and Jason Frasor. Janssen looked good getting four ground balls to the infield, one turned into a Encarnacion error. A bounced throw to first that Lyle Overbay should have picked. League and Roenicke looked great striking out 2 each.
Offensively, we got 7 runs off 9 hits. Travis Snider hit an opposite field homer and drove in another run with a single. He's starting to swing the bat better. The only ones in the lineup not to get a hit were Vernon Wells and Rod Barajas, but they each had a walk. Rod is 0 for his last 19 now. Jose Bautista tripled and doubled.
The other thing we found out today from Rance Mulliniks is that Rod Barajas was a good player because he missed third base. Rod was heading home from second on Snider's single and apparently missed 3rd and went back to touch it. Rance spent a couple of minutes trying to explain why that made him a good player. I thought the replay showed he touched third and just went back because he was slow.
Jay of the Day is Bautista (.175 WPA). Honorable mention to a bunch of guys Encarnacion, Snider, MacDonald and Hill. No Suckage Jay, Rod Barajas came closest (-.084).
We start our last home series of the year against the Mariners tomorrow. Felix Hernandez (16-5, 2.45) goes against Ricky Romero (12-9, 4.28). The game thread was fun tonight, join in tomorrow if you can.