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Who doesn't love Brett Lawrie? As much as I would have liked to have hung the loss on Jonathan Papelbon, I couldn't have asked for a better ending. Lawrie has been so much better than we could have hoped. He's been great with the glove and even better with the bat. I think I have a new favorite. I wonder what kind of numbers he would have if we had brought him north after Spring Training.
Henderson Alvarez had his second great start in a row. He now has 14 straight shutout innings, 10 short of the Jay's rookie record. We sort of down played the 8 innings of shutout ball, his last start, because it was against the Orioles, but this was against a very strong Red Sox team. I really didn't think Alvarez was ready for the Majors, and I'm sure he'll have some bumps in the road, but he looks like he should stick. Today, 6 innings 4 hits, 1 walks and 4 strikeouts. 7 groundouts and 4 fly outs. Great job Henderson.
Carlos Villanueva, Casey Janssen, Frank Francisco and Shawn Camp pitched 5 more scoreless innings. Franky didn't start off great, Carl Crawford led of with a deep fly that Dewayne Wise made an amazing catch on, to save at least a double, then Josh Reddick hit one deep to right, for a double, that Jose Bautista just missed. But then a strikeout and fly out and he was out of the inning. Then he came back to pitch a nice 10th inning. First time he has pitched 2 innings this season. Camp had a nice, quick 10th.
On offense, we only had 6 hits, with 6 walks. We should have won in the 10th. Jose Molina singled and Chris Woodward pinch ran for him. Wise couldn't get a bunt down for out number 1. Pinch hitter Mark Teahen walked. Eric Thames struck out. Baustista walked. But Adam Lind struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. He did have one of our hits and one of our walks before that.
Jays of the Day are Lawrie (.462), Alvarez (.364), Franky (.287), Camp (.143) and Casey (.110). Suckage numbers go to Lind (-.234, 1 for 4 and a walk but the strikeout was big), EE (1 for 5), Wise (-.194, 0 for 4, all strikeouts, but I'm figuring that the catch was worth enough that he shouldn't get the 'award'), Kelly Johnson (1 for 5), Eric Thames (-.130, 0 for 4, 3 k), Jose Bautista (0 for 4, walk) and Molina (-.110, 1 for 4, though the one hit was a big one, or should have been).
Josh Beckett left the game with a sprained ankle. That has to worry Red Sox fans some. They don't have a deep starting rotation.
A really nice win, after that lousy weekend in New York. I love beating the Red Sox.
Tomorrow we are back to night baseball. Jon Lester (14-6, 3.05) starts for the Sox. Luiz Perez (3-2, 3.77). I hope he's better than he was in his last start against the Orioles.
Hey, remember to vote for Tom Cheek.
Here is the Fangraph:
