Wow. This team certainly knows how to make things exciting. Things were close for the entire game and it looked like we might fall farther behind in the 8th, but a great job by our bullpen and an excellent game from our middle of lineup players were able to keep us in the game until Secret Weapon John McDonald was unleashed. All in all it was great time at the end of the game as everyone was dumbfounded that John McDonald just walked off the rays with a HR into the Jays Bullpen in LF.
Our Batters
This is going to be pretty easy, because basically unless you were in the middle of the lineup you didn't do anything. Not withstanding Johnny Mac's HR in the 11th of course. Jose Bautista was simply amazing going Double, Triple, HR, Walk and Walk, he scored 4Rs, RBI and was simply dangerous all night long. Luckily Adam Lind behind Bautista looked just as good as he was able to cash in Bautista 2 times going 2 for 5 with 2RBI, Edwin Encarnacion also went 2 for 5 but had the crucial game tying hit in the 8th to cash in Bautista. Of course Johnny Mac had the big hit of the day winning the game in the ninth with a 2 run home run, he finished 1-4 after coming in for Nix early in the game.
Our Pitching
Jo-Jo Reyes had a good game, He threw 7 solid innings throwing 100 pitches. He gave up 6Hits with 1BB and 6Ks with no home runs. He did give up 4 Runs but that is a solid line, He was keeping the ball down in the zone and looked good. Starting in the 8th inning our Bullpen took over and they were fantastic. Jason Frasor started it off in the 8th giving up a double to Johnny Damon, the pace then crawled to a snails pace much to the dismay to our gamethread, but he came out getting the next couple of batters to popup and ground out without allowing Damon to ground out before getting Sean Rodriguez to strike out. Jon Rauch came in a threw a clean and quick ninth inning. In the 10th. Shawn Camp started the 10th and worked quick, he got a liner to Lind, a groundout to McDonald (that he almost threw away) and another lineout to Snider. He came back out for the 11th and got a K and a groundout before losing Sean Rodriguez to a walk. Marc Rzepczynski came out to get the final out.
All in all a great pitching performance and it was really nice to not see so many walks, we only gave up 2 in 11 innings. Rzepczynski gets the Win.
In the game early Jayson Nix was starting at second, after a hard slide by Rodriguez to break up a double play he went down and had a hard time standing and walking. McDonald came into the game at that point and it all worked out but I hope Nix is ok. Shi Davidi tweeted after the game that the X-Rays were negative and he is scheduled for an MRI in the morning.
Also to note that Jesse Litsch was pulled after 3 innings in Vegas tonight. This gives a very big indication that he is going to be recalled which means someone has to be DL'd, at this point it could be Hill or Nix.
Jays of the Day: Jose Bautista (.463), John McDonald (.263), Edwin Encarnacion (.235), Shawn Camp (.220), Jon Rauch (.143)
Suckage numbers: Yunel Escobar (-.284), J.P. Arencibia (-.278), Travis Snider (-.118), Corey Patterson (-.114), Jo-Jo Reyes and Juan Rivera came close and Rivera was likely saved by his single in the 11th
Tomorrow the game goes at 1PM.