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Well that was not a fun game last night.
This afternoon the Toronto Blue Jays have Brandon Morrow facing his former teammate from Berkeley, Oakland Athletics' Tyson Ross. Manager John Farrell has submitted a new-looking lineup for today's game, with Edwin Encarnacion finally batting 4th and the struggling Adam Lind bumped down to the 8th spot. Eric Thames, Brett Lawrie, and Colby Rasmus are each moving up one spot. Let's see how permanent Farrell will make this arrangement.
Morrow has been very good lately: he hasn't given up a run or walked anyone since April 23 at Kansas City when he gave up 1 of each. Last time out, we all remember, Morrow faced the Los Angeles Angels and threw a complete game shutout, giving up only 3 hits, walking none, while striking out 8. The Jays and Jays fans need a big performance out of Morrow to pick them up from the walkoff loss.
Ross is filling in for Brandon McCarthy, whose start has been pushed back due to shoulder soreness. Ross has struggled his last two starts after starting the year off quite nicely. Pitching against Baltimore on April 28, Ross gave up 9 runs on 11 hits in 4 innings, and last week against the Rays he gave up 7 runs and 9 hits in 3.1 innings. We can only hope that he continues to struggle today so the Jays can put up some crooked numbers on the scoreboard early in the game to avoid any save situations.
This is just a 2-game series, so the Jays will be going for a series split today before flying (as soon as possible) to Minneapolis-St. Paul to face the Minnesota Twins for a 4-gamer.
Full lineups after the jump!
Toronto Blue Jays
- Kelly Johnson 2B
- Yunel Escobar SS
- Jose Bautista RF
- Edwin Encarnacion DH
- Eric Thames LF
- Brett Lawrie 3B
- Colby Rasmus CF
- Adam Lind 1B
- J.P. Arencibia C
Oakland Athletics
The A's cather today, Anthony Recker, spent 7 seasons in the A's minor league system before making his Major League debut against the New York Yankees on August 25 of last year. The Yankees scored 22 runs against the A's that game (cERA alert!).
- Jemile Weeks 2B
- Cliff Pennington SS
- Josh Reddick CF
- Jonny Gomes LF
- Seth Smith RF
- Kila Ka'aihue DH
- Brandon Inge 3B
- Daric Barton 1B
- Anthony Recker C
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