A's 3 Blue Jays 6
We have been ragging on Cito (generally with reason) but we have to give him his due (that's how it is spelled, Blue Jay thwipper), Jon Lott told us that Cito spent time with Buck during batting practice, making suggestions. That's Cito at his best, one on one with a player. I don't even know if it's technique. I think it is as likely the calming presence that Cito has and just the feeling you would get that he believed you could do it so you don't want to let him down. I get the feeling if he told me I could hit I would do it. Well maybe not.
Anyway Cito spends time with Buck and Buck hits 3 home runs and get 5 RBI. Man, I can see the line up of the rest of the players wanting Cito to look at their swing. Travis Snider had a great day too, it pales a bit in comparison, but he had a homer and a double. It is great, two guys that were getting ripped pretty good on here, had the big days. The sparse crowd was on their feet when Buck came up with a shot to hit his fourth homer. He tried.
Other than Snider and Buck, we only had 3 more hits, Fred Lewis, Adam Lind and Jose Bautista each had one. But we took 6 walks which, he says not check, must be our most in a game this year. Aaron Hill had 3, Lyle Overbay 2 and Alex Gonzalez 1.
Ricky Romero didn't have a great start, he gave up 3 run in the first three innings but after the 3rd inning he seemed to find his curve was working well and started getting strikeouts. He made it through 6 innings, giving up 4 hits, 4 walks, 3 earned, striking out 6. Even not being at his sharpest he got 10 ground outs to 2 fly outs. The pen did the job for the last 3 innings: Shawn Camp, Scott Downs and Kevin Gregg each pitched a scoreless inning. Gregg struck out the side in the 9th.
Jays of the Day are Buck (like you needed to be told, .449 WPA) and Snider (.129). No Suckage Jay today, Vernon Wells came closest (-.082).
It is nice to be back in the win column. Puts us at 11-12 on the season, not bad for a team that was to lose 100+ games. If we can win tomorrow we would finish April at .500. Brandon Morrow (1-2, 6.14) goes against Trevor Cahill making his first start of the season.
A's starter Justin Duchscherer left the game in the 4th with what looked like a hip injury. He's had his share of injuries and the A's have had too many already this year.