Mariners 5 Blue Jays 5 (10 innings)
Walk off homers are fun. Adam Lind hit two home runs today, his 31st in the 8th to tie the game and his 32nd in the 10th to win it. That gives him 109 RBI on the season. He's been terrific. It was good to see the team have fun, waiting for him at home plate and beating him when they got there. Jose Bautista also hit one out, giving him 6 on the season.
The Jays had trouble with Mariner starter Ian Snell, striking out 7 times in 6.2 innings against him. But we beat up their bullpen. We had 9 hits on the day, Adam Lind having 3 of them. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit except Vernon Wells (who hit one to the wall and was robbed on a line drive by the M's second baseman) and John McDonald.
David Purcey had a decent start but threw too many pitches and came out of game after 5.1 with the bases loaded. He was helped out by a couple of great catches. Jose Bautista made a terrific over the shoulder catch on a deep fly that he ran a mile to get too. It was just an amazing catch. Travis Snider also made a nice sliding catch. Casey Janssen pitched a nice 1.2. Brandon League pitched a scoreless inning and Jason Frasor went 2 perfect innings with 4 strrikeouts to get the win.
There was a strange moment when Ichiro Suzuki got thrown out of a game for the first time in his career. He struck out and disagreed with the call and drew a line where he thought the pitch was. That's a definite no-no and he was gone. Apparently it was the first time this season a Mariner was ejected from a game.
Jays of the Day are Lind (.714 WPA) and Frasor (.286). Suckage Jays are McDonald (-.198), Wells (-.143) and Purcey (-.149). Too bad for Vernon cause he did hit the ball hard a couple of times, just didn't get the luck.
Tomorrow we have our last home game of the year with Brian Tallet (7-9, 5.39) going up against Ryan Rowland-Smith (4-3, 3.70).
Yeah Randy Ruiz didn't play again today and I'd like to see him play more. No it isn't a tragedy. I'd like to see him out there and all but he isn't the second coming of Babe Ruth . He's a 31 year old, career minor leaguer. I'd like to see him in the mix for the Millar spot next season, but he's not going to be an All-Star. We seem to over dramatizing his lack of play. Not playing him doesn't mean that Cito is stupid or that JP has ordered that he not play or that we don't want to win. It means Cito would rather play other guys. We can disagree, I do disagree, but that's the fun of the game.
We are 12-10 since September 4, I know it doesn't mean that much but wins are more fun than losses.