This is a sponsored post, (and if the sponsor is reading, I badly need a new phone, I don't suppose...), and the theme is to focus on a positive moment moment in the past week.
So let's talk about our 3 game win streak July 26, 27, 28. The Jays had just come off a bad couple of games against the Oakland A's, losing by an aggregate 23 to 2 and having our catcher go on the DL with a broken hand. The games started yet another spat of 'the season's over' comments. Things looked pretty grim. With a tough series against a hot Tigers team coming up it, you could see us falling well under .500. But then we took the final game of the Oakland series. And then, the first 2 from the Tigers (we'll avoid talking about anything after that, this is supposed to be positive).
Let's look at those 3 games:
- July 26, Jays 10 A's 4: We lost 16-0 the day before. Tommy Milone, a good lefty of the type that we generally have trouble with and Aaron Laffy starting for us. I didn't go into the game with happy thoughts. Laffy wasn't good, giving up 4 runs in 5.2, including 2 home runs. When he left the game we were down 4-3. But our bullpen did great, Brandon Lyon had 3 strikeouts in 1.1, getting his first win as a Jay since 2002. Darren Oliver and Casey Janssen did their thing in the 8th and 9th. We scored 7 runs over the 6th, 7th and 8th innings. Edwin Encarnacion hit his 27th homer and drove in 3. Kelly Johnson hit a homer and drove in 2. Travis Snider had 2 hits (a double and a 2 run bunt single). Brett Lawrie went 3 for 3 with a walk and scored 3 times.
- July 27, Jays 8 Tigers 3: Carlos Villanueva gave up back-to-back home runs in the 1st and it didn't look good, but he settled in and went 5 without giving up another run to get the win. Our bullpen only gave up 1 run in the last 4 innings. And the offense worked again. Jeff Mathis drove home 3, with a double. Snider had a solo home run. Even Omar Vizquel (hitting second for reasons that escape me) went 2 for 4 with a double and triple.
- July 28, Jays 5 Tigers 1: A great start for Henderson Alvarez, 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned, 4 strikeouts. J.A.Happ pitched the last couple of innings. On offense, it was the home run show. Colby Rasmus had hit 18th, and drove in 3 on the day. Yunel Escobar (7th) and Edwin (28th) also homered.
All was good in Blue Bird land, we were two games above .500, 1.5 ahead of the Red Sox and just a half game behind the Orioles and the Rays, who were tied for 2nd in the AL East. 3.5 game out of the Wild Card spot, with a lot of teams in between, but we could leap 3 of those teams in a day. You could almost daydream about playoffs.
Let's not talk about what has happened since.