White Sox 8 Blue Jays 7 (11 innings)
To start with the bad, Brian Tallet was bad. I'm not sure if he was over excited, pitching in the home opener or what but he seemed to be getting everything up and was very hittable. His arm was in front of his body all game it seemed. He did make 'eat' 6 innings, giving up 8 hits, 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, 2 homers and 6 earned. He was very lucky that either Jake Peavy was worse, or our offense was very good. Tallet left with a one run lead. He could have got the win.
Shawn Camp pitched a good 1.1. Scott Downs got two outs. Then they trusted Jason Frasor to pitch the 9th, he gave up a solo homer to Mark Teahn to tie the and give Frasor his second blown save of the early season. That got Jeremy Accardo his first action of the season. He made it through one inning and that would have been a good moment to take him out of the game. Why Cito didn't I don't know. I would have thought it would have been a good moment to bring in our good luck charm, Casey Janssen and see if he could vulture his 4th win. In his second inning of work Accardo gave up a single, then a Mark Teahen (him again?) triple. After that Accardo got out of the inning but the Jays couldn't score in the bottom of the inning, despite a Randy Ruiz sighting (he ground out) and 2 walks.
Offensively, we got 7 runs (for the 3rd time in 7 games and I thought we'd have a hard time scoring runs). 7 runs should be enough to win. Vernon Wells hit his 5th homer of the year and John Buck hit his first (crushed it, into the fourth level) both 2 run shots. Adam Lind had 2 hits, a walk and 3 RBI, but then struck out with 2 on and 2 out in the 11th. Jose Bautista had a hit and 2 walks. Edwin Encarnacion had a hit and a walk. Lyle Overbay 2 walks. Travis Snider and John McDonald went 0 for. Travis did line a hard pitch right at the first baseman in the 4th and lined out to short to lead off the 11th.
Jays of the Day are Camp (.153 WPA), Bautista (.104) and Buck (.102). Suckage Jays, well there are a few of them: Tallet (-.360 WPA), Frasor (-.191), Accardo (-.151), Snider (-.145) and McDonald (-.143).
Alex Rios had a good day, other than being booed every time he came into view, going 3 for 5. I have a feeling the booing him is counter productive. Might shock him into actually paying attention to the game that is going on.
So now we are 5 and 2, both our losses have been by 1 run. We are still in first in the AL East. So not a fun loss but we'll get them tomorrow.
I wasn't a fan of the idea of Tallet in the rotation but I wouldn't take one bad game as a sign he shouldn't be there, just like I wouldn't take his first good game as a sign he should. All our starters are going to have bad games at times. I don't cheer for Brian to do poorly. He's a Jay, I hope the best for all for of them and, well, I don't think a few bad starts will change Cito's mind about him being in the rotation.