Nice Start From Carlos Villanueva, Jays Beat Indians

Indians 0 Blue Jays 3

A very nice start from Carlos Villanueva. He walked too many (5) but only allowed 3 hits. There was some good defense behind him but he also had 8 strikeouts. That's 3 starts, for Carlos, 17 innings, 14 hits, 6 walks and 21 strikeouts. I'm not sure why I was so worried about having him as a starter. Well, really I do. His first few starts were good last year, but he didn't keep it up. Hopefully, this year will go better.

I'll admit, Carlos is so slow, on the mound, that I had a hard time keeping interested the game. I do wish they would remember that baseball is a spectator sport.

Jason Frasor pitched a nice 7th and Darren Oliver got his first save as a Jay (and 6th of his career) by pitching 2 scoreless innings. I do like the idea that relievers can go more than an inning at a time, even at 41 years of age. Nice that Casey Janssen could have a day off.

On offense, we didn't do a lot against Derek Lowe. We only had 5 hits and 4 walks. Fortunately 3 of the hits and 3 of the walks came in the 3rd inning, adding up to 3 runs. J.P. Arencibia and Colby Rasmus had RBI singles, and Adam Lind took a bases loaded walk that inning.

Jays of the Day are Carlos (.311 WPA) and I am going to give one to Oliver for the 6 out save. He only gave up 1 hit, a Michael Brantley double to lead off the 9th. Colby almost made a great catch on it, running back a long way, only to just miss the ball. I figure if you run that far you might as well make the catch. No Suckage Jays today.

Farrell gave a slumping Rajai Davis a day off from the starting lineup, then, when Ben Francisco doubled in the 7th, Rajai went in as a pinch runner. I like Davis in that role, but this time he got himself picked off second. It really would have been nice to score that extra run.

We had some good defense again. Edwin Encarnacion picked up a Asdrubal Cabrera ground ball, stepped on first and made a very nice throw to second to double up Jack Hannahan. Brett Lawrie had his usual couple of great plays. And Yunel made a great throw from deep in the hole, to get the final out of the game.

The Jays are 45-44, half a game up on the Red Sox (at least until Boston finish beating the Rays, this afternoon). We are just 2 games behind the Orioles for that final Wild Card spot. The team heads to New York for the start of a 3 game series tomorrow. Henderson Alvarez (5-7, 4.36) tries to start his second half on the right note. Phil Hughes (9-7, 4.33) starts for the Yankees.

Alex, I don't suppose you are reading this, but if you are, please bring up Travis Snider. Thanks.