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R.A. Dickey won his first Gold Glove today to go along with his Fielding Bible Award meaning the second most important piece of hardware in baseball goes to the Blue Jays (not really). It also happens to be Dickey's birthday today so that's a nice little present for the knuckleballer. Although his pitching line that included an ERA of 4.21 and a FIP of 4.58 wasn't too pretty to look at, his defense (which included 7 defensive runs saved) made up for some of it. The news was confirmed on Rawling's twitter page:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23RawlingsGoldGlove&src=hash">#RawlingsGoldGlove</a> Award WINNER – AL P – <a href="https://twitter.com/BlueJays">@BlueJays</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RADickey43">@RADickey43</a></p>— Rawlings Sports (@RawlingsSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/RawlingsSports/statuses/395351662253977601">October 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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This is the 23rd Gold Glove in Blue Jays history, with the most recent one going to Vernon Wells in 2006. Surprisingly enough, this is the first ever Gold Glove awarded to a Blue Jays pitcher so this season wasn't a complete failure!
Former Blue Jay Yunel Escobar was nominated for his work at shortstop with the Tampa Bay Rays, but lost out to J.J. Hardy of the Baltimore Orioles. Other Gold Glove winners this year include:
Shortstops: Andrelton Simmons and J.J. Hardy
Left Fielders: Carlos Gonzalez and Alex Gordon
Centre Fielders: Carlos Gomez and Adam Jones
Right Fielders: Gerardo Parra and Shane Victorino
First Basemen: Paul Goldschmidt and Eric Hosmer
Second Basemen: Brandon Phillips and Dustin Pedroia
Third Basemen: Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado
Catchers: Yadier Molina and Salvador Perez
Pitchers: Adam Wainwright and R.A. Dickey
Here's some highlights of Dickey's defensive campaign:
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Congratulations to R.A. Dickey and happy birthday!