Hope all is well with everyone. I got up nice and early this morning and went for a run, then made myself some eggs. I'm headed out of town tomorrow for the week so at some point I have to get to packing, which I hate to do and usually end up taking 5 minutes to throw a few suits into my suitcase.
Anyway, enough about Hugo and on to the Jays. After a disappointing loss yesterday, the Jays nonetheless still have a great chance to take the four game road series (on the West Coast, no less) with a win this afternoon.
Drew Hutchison pitches for Toronto, making his fourth major league start. Hutchison has been pretty decent so far this season (xFIP 4.15), but two of his three starts just haven't gone his way. Some of it is just bad luck (59% LOB) but he also hasn't been able to integrate his changeup as he needs in order to be effective (he's only thrown it 7% of the time but it has cost him 2 runs already and so it has had a "value" of -10.03/C, meaning that for every 100 pitches Drew's Changeup has been worth -10 runs) and that has really hurt him against lefties. If he is going to be successful against lefty hitters, he is going to need to use his changeup more and more effectively.
Jerome Williams, who has been pretty good in his first four starts this season, pitches for Los Angeles.
Today's title goes back to the Decemberists for a line from the song "the Crane Wife." We're spending the day with some friends of ours who are Japanese, and that made me think of the song, which is based on an old Japanese folktale (there aren't any new folktales, really, so I guess that's redundant).
I'm going hiking this afternoon so won't be around for lineups (maybe someone else can throw them in), but I should be back for at least part of the game. Here in DC we have to enjoy the outdoors for as long as we can until the oppressive heat begins.