Great Start for Drew Hutchison. Jays Beat Orioles.

Orioles 2 Blue Jays 6

That was much more fun.

Drew Hutchison has been pretty good, but most games he has this one bad inning that ruins things. Tonight his bad inning was the 3rd, he gave up a single and 3 walks, but was helped out by Chris Davis, who got picked of 2nd and made it though without a run scoring. He went 7 innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, 9 (!) strikeouts and no runs.

I thought John Farrell should have pulled him out after the 6th. He had thrown 95 pitches and I thought he should come out while things were good, but he got through the 7th allowing just a hit batter and a single, finishing the inning by getting his 9th k. He ended up with 114 pitches, too many, to me, for a 21 year old who was in A-ball a year ago.

Luis Perez pitched a scoreless 8th. Francisco Cordero had some troubles in the 9th. 3 ground ball singles and a double hit hard off the center field wall. I really expected Colby Rasmus to make the catch. Maybe I just think he's going to catch everything hit to center, but he should have gotten to the wall, felt the wall, then jumped for the catch. Instead he stopped just short of the wall, jumped and missed the ball. tough play and the ball was hit hard. Cordero was lucky it wasn't a home run.

Casey Janssen came in with runners on 2nd and 3rd and us up by 4 and got a soft line out (nice catch Kelly) and a ground out to first. Save number 4 for Casey.

On the offensive side, we got 9 hits and 6 runs off Tommy Hunter in 3 innings. Kelly Johnson in his first game back after a couple off with a sore hamstring, had 3 hits, including 2 doubles, and 3 RBI. Colby Rasmus (looking good in the 2nd spot in the order) and David Cooper had 2 hits each. Edwin Encarnacion had a solo homer, number 16 on the year. Jose Bautista was the only one in the lineup without a hit.

Jays of the Day are Drew (.240 WPA) and Kelly (.113). No one gets the Suckage number. Cordero had the low mark at -.048.

After 5 brutal losses in a row, it was really nice to watch a win. Tomorrow Ricky Romero (5-1, 3.86) tries to make it 2 in a row. He almost has to be better than last time out. Jake Arrieta (2-5, 4.87) starts for the O's.

Fun game thread again. Thanks to all that joined in.