Edwin Encarnacion Homers for 4th Game in Row: Jays Still Lose

Rangers 4 Blue Jays 1

Edwin Encarnacion is just locked in at the moment. He's been amazing. Unfortunately he's been the only one doing anything on offense. Edwin had 2 hits, including his 8th home run, and was hit by pitch, the rest of the lineup only managed 2 hits, 1 each for Eric Thames and Colby Rasmus.

Kyle Drabek was great. He struck out 8 in 6 innings. He did gie up 3 doubles and 2 earned runs but that was about as good as you hope for Kyle to pitch. If he continues like this, we are going to like the guy. He now has a 2.40 ERA.

Evan Crawford didn't have as good a time of it. He came in to start the 7th inning, with us down by just a run and gave up 2 home runs. I don't know why Farrell went to Crawford for the second day in a row, with the game so close. Jason Frasor came in and got out of the 7th without allowing another run, even though he gave up a hit and 2 walks. Luis Perez pitched the last 2 scoreless innings.

Jays of the Day are Encarnacion (.208 WPA) and Drabek (.102). For suckage we have Crawford (-.202) and, well, you could pick any of the hitters not named Edwin. J.P. Arencibia had the worst number at -.194 for an 0 for 3 with a strikeout. I'm also going to give one to Kelly Johnson for his -.088 plus dropping a perfect J.P. throw that would have caught Ian Kinsler easily. It didn't end up costing us a run, but still, you should be making that play.

I don't think Edwin was happy about being hit by Yu Darvish, he took a look at Darvish on his way around the bases after the home run. Darvish, for his part, tipped his cap to Edwin, after hitting him, a signal that Japanese pitchers use to let the batter know that it was an accident. Not that I think that a pitcher wouldn't be above lying, but I'm sure this one wasn't on purpose, he had Edwin at an 0-2 count.

Yu looked good, maybe he's not as good as the Jays batters tried to make him look, but he was around the strike zone all game long and had a fair bit of movement on his pitches.

Tomorrow we have Drew Hutchison going up against the Rangers. Neftali Feliz gets the start for Texas.