That was a fun game. Even if Colby Rasmus went 0 for 5 and made a bad throw from center, it was great to see him in a Jays uniform.
Lots of offense today. Edwin Encarnacion went 3 for 4 with a homer, double and bases loaded walk. Eric Thames went back-to-back with EE and had a sac fly. Yunel Escobar, Travis Snider and J.P. Arencibia had 2 hits each. Even Aaron Hill had a bunt single and a walk.
Colby and Adam Lind were the only Jays to go hitless, but Lind made an amazing catch, going back on a pop fly and catching a ball that came straight over his head. Jose Bautista also made a couple of good plays at third.
Carlos Villanueva didn't have a good night. He gave up 2 runs in each of the 1st and 5th innings. He really was lucky to only give up the 4 runs, everything he threw was up and many outs were hit hard. He gave up 2 homers in the first inning and 2 hard hit balls that were just foul, plus 2 fly outs balls to the track.
New Jay P.J. Walters pitched a scoreless inning, giving up just a walk, he was send down to Vegas just after the game. Jesse Litsch is coming up, to pitch out of the pen. I'd rather have him in the rotation and put Carlos back in the pen but that's me. Casey Janssen and Frankie each had a scoreless inning. Jon Rauch gave up a solo homer to JJ Hardy in the 9th.
Jays of the Day are Edwin (.303 WPA) and JP (.096). Rasmus came closest to Suckage number but just short at -.088.
Snider looked better at the plate tonight, but had an interesting slide into home, scoring from 2nd on a single. It looked like he was planning on running over the catcher on the play but then didn't have to when Wieters had the sense not to catch the throw to the plate. I wouldn't want Travis running over me either. His slide/dive into the plate wasn't a thing of beauty.
Tomorrow we start a 3 game series with the Rangers at Rogers. Brett Cecil (3-4, 4.71) goes against them again after his shutout in Texas his last time out. Alexi Ogando (10-4) starts for the Jays, he lost to Cecil last time out.
We are just a 1.5 games back of the Rays for 3rd place. Wouldn't it be nice to pass them?