Blue Jay 6 Diamondbacks 8
Gotta love when players prove you wrong. I was sure Edwin Encarnacion would need a few games to get the timing on his swing, since his rehab was cut short. Nope. He has had 12 at bats since returning and 4 home runs. He wasn't the only Jays to hit one out. Fred Lewis started the game off with one, Jose Bautista hit one and Adam Lind pulled one out, down the line, in his pinch hit at bat in the 9th. It is kind of funny that the four guys that will share 3 positions, in this NL style series, provided all our offense. All solo homers.
We have six hits that stayed in the park too. Alex Gonzalez and Lyle Overbay each went 2 for 4. It is nice that Lyle is keeping his hot hitting going, he's hitting .353 in the past 9 games. He's up to .208 on the season now. Fred Lewis had a double to got with his home run and Vernon had a single. We didn't take a walk though.
On the not so good side. Brandon Morrow had a bad start. 4 innings, 8 hits, 6 earned, 6 k. In a reversal of his normal bad game, he only walked one batter. He was hurt by a lack of communication between Encarnacion and Lewis that allowed a popup that should have been caught to become a 'double'. Tough to assign blame. If the outfielder can get the ball, it is his. Lewis was clearly calling for it, and Edwin should have come out of the way, but it is possible that Edwin didn't hear Fred. He has to keep going for the ball until he is called off.
That's the most hittable Brandon has looked all season. Pitches were left up high in the zone. Not only was he hit, he was hit hard, 5 doubles and a home run against. We can mentally subtract one of those doubles, but the others were hit hard. After 4 decent starts in a row, Morrow has had a terrible start, a good start and tonight.
Josh Roenicke came in and gave up a run on 2 hits, 3 walks, 2 k, in 2 innings. Casey Janssen gave up 3 hits in his inning, but only the solo homer counted. Rommie Lewis pitched a good inning.
Jay of the Day? Well, no one had the WPA for JoD, mostly because we way behind early. Fred Lewis had the best number (.081), but I figure any player that hits 3 homers in a game should be JoD. So we'll give one to Edwin. Suckage goes to Morrow (-.299), John Buck (-.098, with some terrible looking at bats in his 0 for 4) and Aaron Hill (-.090) 0 for 5 with 2 k. The Jays battled back and gave Hill a shot at tying the game in the 9th with 2 outs but he chased pitches out of the strike zone to put himself in a hole, then hit a soft fly to center.
The game was at least exciting. Down by 4, with 2 out in the 9th, Edwin and Lind went deep and Lewis hit one very hard off the center field wall to make us hopeful.
Diamondback's pitcher Dan Haren, pitched pretty well, but he was much better with the bat, going 2 for 4 with 3 RBI. With 2 runners on in the 4th, he showed bunt then pulled the bat back and hit a double, driving in both runners. Even the at bats where he didn't hit, he saw a lot of pitches.
As Cito said:
If we hit that many home runs, we usually win.
Tomorrow night Dana Eveland (3-3, 4.98) goes against Edwin Jackson (2-5, 4.79 6.33). We might see some runs again.