Good Start for Brandon Morrow: Blue Jays Beat Yankees

Yankees 1 Blue Jays 7

Have I mentioned how much I like beating the Yankees? That was a great game. 

Brandon Morrow had some trouble finding the strike zone in the first couple of innings. Actually, it was as much the plate umpire that was having trouble finding the plate. Brandon gave up a run in the 2nd but, after the single that scored the run, he got 13 straight outs. He pitched 6.2 innings, giving up just 4 hits, 2 walks (would have been 0 if the plate umpire could have made some calls) and 6 strikeouts with just the 1 run. 

The bullpen did a good job again tonight too. Octavio Dotel finished off the 7th. Marc Rzepczynski was great in the 8th, 3 quick outs with 2 strikeouts. He made Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano look bad. And Jason Frasor pitched the 9th. Frasor got robbed on what should have been strike three to Russell Martin, that would have ended the game. Then Martin singled and Brett Gardner singled on a bouncer to Adam Lind that Lind should have been able to make a play on. But Jason struck out Eduardo Nunez to finish off the game. 

On offense, we scored 7 runs without getting a home run. Yunel Escobar, batting 3rd in place of Bautista, had 3 hits, a walk and 2 RBI. Eric Thames, Travis Snider and Jose Molina each had 2 hits. Edwin Encarnacion went 1 for 2 with a double, and 2 walks, 1 intentional. Lind (0 for 4, with a walk), Corey Patterson (0 for 4, 2 k) and Aaron Hill (0 for 4, walk, run, RBI and 2 steals) were the only Jays not to hit. 

Jays of the Day are Morrow (.213 WPA), EE (.144) and Yunel (.118). No one had suckage number, Corey had the low mark at -.071.

The Jays enjoyed stealing bases off Russell Martin. It must have been fun after Martin tells everyone that the Jays were stealing signs. Hey Russell, if the other team is stealing signs, isn't it up to the catcher to change the signs? Hill stole 2 bases, Travis 1 and EE 1 (the back end of a double steal with Hill). Martin threw the ball into left field trying to catch Hill, costing the Yankees a run. 

We had some great defense again tonight. Edwin made a highlight reel play, diving to stop a grounder, rolling and throwing, from his butt, to first. He also made a nice catch on a soft line drive. Escobar showed, again, that he is a better defensive (and offensive) SS than Jeter. He and Hill turned a nice DP too. 

Eric Thames left the game with leg cramps. He is getting IV and will likely play tomorrow. Bautista? Farrell says he might play Sunday but it's more likely they will wait till Tuesday.

Anyone else tired of Pat and Buck telling us how great veteran players are? I'd bet they said the word veteran 100 times today. I'm going to try to count next time. Yes, I get it. We shouldn't use young players. We were better off with Rivera, Nix and Patterson than we are with Snider and Thames. Please give it a rest.

The Jays have won 5 straight now. Tomorrow at 1:00 Eastern Ricky Romero (7-8, 3.09) goes against CC Sabathia (13-4, 2.72).