Shut Out for Brandon Morrow: Jays Beat Angels

Blue Jays 5 Angels 0

Hugo, I think you ought to stick with the Decemberists, for the thread titles, this series. It seems to bring out the best in the Jays.

That was just a amazing start for Brandon Morrow. 3 hits, 0 walks (second start in a row with no walks), only 1 batter over the minimum. 8 strikeouts. 2 double plays, both started by Brett Lawrie, both great plays by him. Brandon threw only 102 pitches, 75 of them strikes. He had 9 ground outs and 6 fly outs. I think this start was even better than his 1-hitter. Just a super job. I'm so glad to see him do well, this is why I like him. Any start could be something special.

Dan Haren pitched well, but the Jays were able to get 5 runs off him, on just 5 hits in 7 innings. 3 of them on a J.P. Arencibia homer. The other two on a throwing error by Angel "third baseman" Mark Trumbo. An easy ground ball that Trumbo threw past first.

We could have had more runs. Edwin Encarnacion hit a liner down the third base line, with 2 on in the 8th, and it was called foul. I still think it was fair, but we won so I won't complain too much. Add in that Jose Bautista and Adam Lind each had a tough day at the plate, so with some luck and/or a timely hit from one of those two and we'd have had more runs. Also, Albert Pujols made a nice grab on a very hard hit Colby Rasmus grounder, that would have been at least a double. Instead it was a double play.

We had some great defense too. Brett Lawrie had a heck of a day with the glove, starting 2 double plays and making at least 2 other nice plays. Colby Rasmus made a nice catch on a fly to center and Eric Thames had a great catch on a ball over his head, to end the 3rd inning.

Jays of the Day are Morrow (.263 WPA) and JP (.214). No one had the suckage number, Lind had the day's low mark at -.051 for an 0 for 4, with 3 strikeouts.

On the Angels side, Vernon Wells and Albert Pujols went 0 for 6 between them, and I don't think either hit a ball hard. I wonder how long Vernon will have a job there. He is still owed a ton of money. Thank you, Angels, for taking him off our hands.

Tomorrow we have Henderson Alvarez taking on Ervin Santana.

Nice to see JP hit one out, but the story of the game was how good Morrow looked. He that was as good as I've ever seen him pitch.

The GameThreads were great fun. I'm amazing we could have over 1800 comments on a game that started at 10:00 in the East. It looks like Hoph is today's Pick 6 winner. I was hopeful, early in the night, but I finished 4th. Not so bad. We had 161 players today, I hope everyone is enjoying the game. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot. It's great fun.

I have to get to bed....cold medicine and wine aren't a good mix, if you want to stay awake.