Jays Got the Eye of the Tiger: Blue Jays 5, Tigers 1

Hello all, I'm your substitute weekend recapper for this weekend while Tom is out in Edmonton enjoying a music festival. If you misbehave or give me any grief then you'd better believe you'll get a paddling. Posting .gifs at wrong times, it's a paddling. Mocking the old guy writing this, it's a paddling. Paddling a canoe, you'd better believe it's a paddling.

Anyway, today's game was a good win for the Jays who used good pitching, excellent defense and timely hitting to beat a formerly hot but intact Tigers team.

On The Mound:

Henderson Alvarez pitched very well over seven innings throwing 104 pitches (63 strikes) with nine ground outs vs six fly outs, four Ks and two BBs (in the 6th inning to Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder.) His pitches had a lot more sink than we saw in Boston and he had better command of his sinker. The only mistake he made was to Brendan Boesch who hammered a down and away sinker to the left centre gap for an RBI double that accounted for Detroit's lone run.

At the Plate:

For a change, the Jays scored first in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Yan Gomes and Anthony Gose both singled (Gose's first "real" hit) and after a bunt attempt by Rajai Davis which forced Gomes out, Gose got to 3rd on a wild pitch that stopped three feet from the catcher and Rajai then stole 2nd. Colby Rasmus hit a sac fly to score Gose. After the Tigers tied it in the 4th, Edwin hit an opposite field shot to break the tie to lead off the bottom of the 4th.

Things would remain 2-1 till the 6th when Yunel Escobar smashed a long drive to left centre for a solo home run. Colby Rasmus would put the game out of reach in the 7th when he hit a 2 run home run to right field (his first since the all star break) making it 5-1 and driving Anibal Sanchez from the game.

Edwin Encarnacion and Colby Rasmus led the Jays attack. Edwin went 1 for 2 with two walks (the hit being the aforementioned home run) while Colby (who was the DH) went 2 for 3 with three RBIs and a home run. Brett Lawrie and Yan Gomes also had two hits while Yunel Escobar had the home run, Rajai Davis had a 2B and two stolen basis while Anthony Gose had the other Jays hit for a total of 10 hits today. It was not a good day for Snider or Kelly Johnson as they went o-fer although KJ did work a walk.

From the pen:

JA Happ came out of the pen to finish the last two innings. He got one BB, one K and induced Miguel Cabrera to hit into a double play in the 8th. The offense, Alvarez and Happ allowed John Farrell to give his three best relievers (Lyons, Oliver and Janssen) a day of rest.

As for Jays of the Day, the top number goes to Alvarez who pitched well and FG gave him a WPA of .335. I perhaps should give Edwin one as well (0.088.) After that no Jays batter was close in terms of WPA. However, only Travis Snider came close to being the suckage Jay of the Day at -0.091 but I won't do that to him because of the run saving diving catch he made in the 1st.

The Jays are now TWO games above .500 and could sweep away the Tigers tomorrow. The week seems to be a reflection of how this season has gone as they looked really awful against Oakland in the first two games then now have won three in a row in dominating fashion (pitching, offense and defense.) I really hope the winning continues.

Tomorrow Doug Fister (for Furbush, heh) starts for Detroit while Brett Cecil starts for the Jays.