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Finally we get a game with good pitching and good offense. It has seemed like we are only allowed to have one or the other lately.
Henderson Alvarez has been so bad in his last few starts, he left with a sore elbow in his last start, and the Angels have been hitting so well, I thought this might be a bad day. Instead Henderson gives us one of his best starts of the season. Not quite his best start, he threw a shutout against these Angels in early May, but this one was still great. 7 innings, 7 hits, 1 earned, no walks and 3 k. 12 ground outs, 4 fly outs.
John Farrell pulled him after just 80 pitches, which, considering the sore elbow from last start, is really understandable. Good move John (nice to say that after several questionable moves the past few days). Luiz Perez pitched a scoreless 8th and David Pauley showed why the Angels let him go, but he only allowed 1 run.
On offense, we scored 7 runs in the 2nd inning, it was really nice to get a big early lead, so we could relax and just enjoy the rest of it. We had some help from the Angels outfield. Center fielder Peter Bourjos dropped a Brett Lawrie line drive (the ball was hit hard but if you get you glove on it, you should catch it), Mike Trout made a throwing error on an Edwin Encarnacion single, letting Jose Bautista score, and he also let a Kelly Johnson ball bounce over his head for a triple. We hit for the cycle the inning. Doubles for Johnson and Colby Rasmus. Triple for Johnson. Home run for Yunel. We got 3 more runs in the 5th on a Brett Lawrie home run.
We had 10 hits. 3 for Brett and 2 for Kelly (both in that second inning). The only starters not to hit were Adam Lind (0 for 3, with a walk, but he had 2 homers yesterday, so we'll forgive) and Rajia Davis (0 for 4).
Jays of the Day are Alvarez (.129 WPA), Lawrie (.124), Rasmus (.106) and Escobar (.100). No Suckage Jays,
We had some nice plays in the field as well, but one I want to mention, Colby went back after a ball, in the 8th inning, and made a super diving catch. The nice part about being up by that many runs is that you can go for circus catches like that, because, if you miss, extra bases won't hurt you. We were going to win anyway. So no reason for Colby not to go for that. Minor Leaguer, when you put together the list of plays of the month, that's my nomination.
There was another moment I wanted to touch on. In the 6th inning, Yunel hit into a force out. Yunel was unhappy with a strike call and vented a bit, while standing at first. 90 feet away from the plate umpire. The umpire felt it necessary to walk down the baseline to yell at Yunel. I really don't get why. A player should be allowed to vent, if he is a long way from the umpire. The umpire should be the grown up in this sort of thing. Ignore.
Anyway, the final game of the series happens tomorrow, a 3:00 Eastern start, on Canada Day. C.J. Wilson (9-4, 2.36) gets the start for the Angels. Aaron Laffey gets his second start of the season for the Jays. He pitched 6 scoreless innings against the Red Sox last Tuesday. I guess hoping for similar results tomorrow would be asking a lot.
That was a fun game to watch. And a fun GameThread, thanks to all that took part.