Yunel Escobar goes 4-4 as Jays trump Twins 6-2

The Jays took control of the game early. They scored 6 runs in the first 4 innings of the game and really never looked back. The Twins looked every bit as bad as their record would suggest. Pitches were flat and the Jays were able to take advantage.

On the Mound

Henderson Alvarez looked shaky early on, that being said the big breaks between innings certainly wasn't helping things. There was a shot of him in the dugout using gripping a towel and doing the throwing motion in order to stay loose. Overall he was able to settle down after a iffy first two innings and put together yet another solid outing. Yet another quality start with 7IP 3BB and 7Hs with 2ER's. The strikeout numbers are still low with him only getting 2 on the night. That brings the season totals to 13BBs with 14Ks he has been getting by with a lot of groundballs and higher strand rates but you have to wonder how long that can last. Luis Perez and Jason Frasor pitched the 8th and 9th both clean innings with 2Ks each.

At the plate

It was a good day for the hitters. Probably helped a bit that Jason Marquis was pitching. As the headline mentioned Yunel Escobar went 4-4 with 3runs scored, Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus had two hits apiece with 2 and 1 RBI respectively. Edwin Encarnacion and Kelly Johnson each had a hit apiece with Edwin driving in 2. One of the ones he "drove" in was a weird one. A pop up straight up and the Twins catcher couldn't pick it up, it dropped in the middle of the infield for a single.

It was a weird game all around. The umpire in particularly seemed to be having a bad night. First early in the game Jose Bautista gets brushed by an HBP, well it was close to me it looked like it got his jersey. The umpire ruled it didn't hit him. Like I said it was close so I can understand it. Later in the same at-bat Jose got drilled with a fastball right between the numbers. Initially the umpire said it didn't count since Jose didn't make an effort to get out of the way. Complete stupidness, he conferred with the rest of the umpires and they overturned the call. Later in the game when Luis Perez was coming into the game the umpire got involved again, he seemed to think that Perez's undershirt was too distracting and sent him into the dugout to get changed. I was stunned.

Jays of the day - Since the game got away from the Twins early not many Jays got enough high leverage situations to make it count. Alvarez and Lawrie have the numbers

Suckage - None

Tomorrow night is another 8 Eastern start with Kyle Drabek taking the mound opposite Nick Blackburn