Edwin Encarnacion Homers and Steals Two Bases, Jays Beat Red Sox

Red Sox 3 Blue Jays 7

Now that was a fun game. It was good to see the offense get us some runs, finally. Just about everybody in the starting lineup had a hand in getting us the win. Well, everybody but Jose Bautista. He had a bad night, 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. The plate umpire did seem to be wanting to teach Jose a lesson of some sort. Any pitch anywhere close to the plate was a strike when he was up.

Edwin Encarnacion had a great day. He was 2 for 3, with a home run, a walk and amazingly enough 2 stolen bases. Nice to see him get his first homer early in the season, after wanting till the end of May last year. One of his stolen bases was on a hit and run try. Brett Lawrie couldn't make contact with the pitch, but Edwin was safe anyway. Edwin then went to 3rd on a Lawrie ground ball hit in front of him. Normally you aren't supposed to go to third on a ball in front of you, but EE made a great read on the ball (or perhaps he was lucky). He seemed to distract the SS too, helping Lawrie get the infield single, though with Lawrie's speed, he likely would have been safe anyway.

Yunel Escobar, Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie all had two hits. Kelly Johnson, Eric Thames and J.P. Arencibia had a hit each. Thames also worked an important walk in our 3 run 6th, off a lefty. I was sure Farrell was going to pinch hit for him. Arencibia drove in 2 runs, with just his second hit of the season. Colby Rasmus was 0 for 3, but hit a ball to the left field track for a sac fly.

Kyle Drabek did a nice job, going 5.1 innings, with just 2 hits, and 3 walks allowed, 1 earned and 4 strikeouts. 1 hit and 2 of the walks came in the 6 inning. It looked like he was tiring. Lucky for him, Jason Frasor came in and got a double play ball to get out of the inning. I though Kyle looked really good. He did have bit of trouble in the 2nd inning, giving up a 1-out double (another high fastball hit by Dustin Pedroia, gotta stop giving him those), then a walk, but then he got two stirkeouts to get out of the inning.

Kyle's first start last year was a good one too, so I'm not declaring him fixed, but he looked good.

Frasor and Luis Perez each pitched a scoreless 1.1. Casey Janssen had a bit of trouble in the 9th, giving up 3 hits, a walk and 2 runs, while striking out the side.

Jays of the Day are Frasor (159 WPA), Lind (.113), Edwin (.108) and Kyle (.091). No Suckage Jays, Jose came closest at -.084.

On defense: Our infield does a great job at turning double plays, they got another important one today. Thames had trouble with a fly ball over his head, again. It wasn't an easy catch but I thought he should have made it. He kind of gave it a wave as it went over him. Yunel made a great catch on a popup to short center.

Tomorrow it is an afternoon game. 12:30 Eastern start. Let's get the series win.