Nice Start For Henderson Alvarez, Omar Vizqual Passes Babe Ruth In Hits, Jays Still Lose To Yankees

Blue Jays 2 Yankees 4

The good news? Omar Vizquel singled in the 4th and doubled in the 8th, to tie and pass Babe Ruth on the all-time hit list. Congratulations Omar. And Henderson Alvarez, after a shaky 1st inning, pitched a very good game.

Henderson gave up 3 hits and 3 runs in the first innings. The next 6 he allowed just 2 more hits, with no walks and 7 (!!) strikeouts in his 7 innings. If he can continue to pitch like that, we'll be very happy. Darren Oliver had a tough 8th inning giving up a run.

Beyond that there wasn't much to cheer about. We did put up a fight in the 8th inning. Brett Lawrie doubled, Adam Lind singled and Kelly Johnson singled, getting us a run. A Moises Sierra strikeout later, Omar Vizquel doubled, diving in pinch runner Mike McCoy. I really thought Johnson was going to be sent home, with the tying run, but perhaps Butterfield had a better view of things than I did. Adeiny Hechavarria struck out, Anthony Gose walked and Rajai Davis hit a line drive to left that Ichiro Suzuki made a very good catch on. You sure got a good view of the Yankee Stadium strike zone that inning.

We had 10 hits and 3 walks, we should have scored more than 2, but some poor decisions to bunt and some bad at bats when we needed a hit cost us. We had 2 hits each from Lind (one against a lefty), Vizquel and Hechavarria. 0 fors go to Mathis, Rasmus and Gose, though the latter pair each had a walk.

Jay of the Day goes to Omar (.237 WPA) and Kelly (.097). Suckage for Davis (-.226, not truly fair as he got most of the negative on the line drive that Ichiro caught, and he was robbed by the umpire on 2 strike calls that at bat), Adeiny (-.139, 2 for 4, but the strikeout in the 8th was huge), Anthony (-.112) and Colby (-.097).

Vizquel made a nice play on a Andruw Jones pop up to lead off the bottom of the 8th, he dove for the ball but it came out of his glove when he hit the ground. Fortunately, the first base umpire called the ball fair and Omar stretched out and touched the bag, while laying out on the ground.

It is a game of inches. In the first inning, Robinson Cano doubled just over Colby's head in center, tough catch, as it was hit straight at him, but if he had caught it, Henderson might have gotten out of the inning without the 3 runs scoring. And, in the 8th, Anthony Gose just missed a diving catch on a ball down the left field line. He gets that and he Yankees don't score that inning.

We play again at 7:00 Eastern, the second game of the day/night double header. Ricky Romero starts for the good guys. David Philps starts for the Evil Empire.