Isn't it great how a new series can make life so much better. The offense, that looked so inept against Atlanta, looks reasonable against the Cardinals. Taking Nix and Patterson (not that they were the only problems in the lineup) has helped. Davis still looks lost at the plate, but there isn't two others that look as bad with him.
We got another nice start from Carlos Villanueva. He went 6 innings, 5 hits, 1 walks, 3 k and 2 earned. A few days ago that 2 earned would have bought him a loss, but, thank goodness, we are scoring again. Jon Rauch pitched us a great 7th. He had a bit more trouble in the 8th, giving up a single then a hit batter before getting a questionable (at best) strike out of Matt Holliday. Holliday got thrown out for putting up a very understandable argument about the third strike call.
John Farrell brought Marc Rzepczynski in, planning on a double-switch, but messed it up, so it wasn't a double-switch. These AL managers can't seem to figure out how to do that. Scrabble threw 1 pitch and got the double play to get out of the inning. Frank Francisco gave up a run in the 9th off a double, single and his own error, but fortunately had a 4 run lead to work with.
On offense, we didn't get a lot of hits, just 6 with 4 walks, but we had some big hits at the right time. Juan Rivera hit a 3 run home in the 3rd, to cap a 5 run inning. Edwin Encarnacion had a solo home run in the 9th to pad our lead. He also had a double in the 6th. Aaron Hill, hitting 2nd, had a nice game with 2 hits and a walk. Jose Bautista had a single and an intentional walk, plus a long fly that he just missed. Nice to see him hitting well again.
Jays of the Day are Rivera (.207 WPA), Scrabble (.103 for one pitch, but it got us a double play) and I'm going to give one to Carlos (.087). No Jay had suckage numbers, Adam Lind had the low mark at -.080 for an 0 for 3, but he had a nice sac fly in there, to plate our first run.
Edwin started his second consecutive game at third base and, I think, looked fine there. I wouldn't be against him playing there more, but I don't think the club can go back on the decision to play Bautista there for a second time in a few months.
Tomorrow Ricky Romero (6-7, 2.98) goes for the sweep. Let's score him 20 or so runs, ok guys? Kyle McClellan (6-3, 3.73) gets the start for the Cards. It is a 2:00 Eastern start time. A sweep would be nice.