11th Straight Win for the Blue Jays! Jays Sweep Orioles

Orioles 5 Blue Jays 13

11 straight wins. Baseball is definitely fun again.

We scored early and often. It was 9-0 after 3 innings. We had 7 hits and 7 runs against Freddy Garcia, in just 2.1 innings.

Everyone in the starting lineup had at least 1 hit except Munenori Kawasaki, he did have a nice sac bunt in the second inning. Even an All-Star deserves an off-day, once in a blue moon.

On offense:

• Melky Cabrera: 1 for 3, sac fly, 2 RBI.
• Jose Bautista: 1 for 3, 2 walks, double, 3 RBI.
• Edwin Encarnacion: 3 for 5, double, home run, 4 RBI. Another that deserves your All-Star votes.
• Colby Rasmus: 1 for 4, walk, home run.
• J.P. Arencibia: 3 for 4, 1 RBI on a bases loaded hit by pitch. He also did a good job catching Josh Johnson.
• Maicer Izturis: 2 for 5, 2 doubles.
• Emilio Bonifacio: 2 for 4, double, steal.

We did everything. Small ball, Emilio gets a bunt single (bunted over the pitcher), steals second, goes to third on a Kawasaki bunt and scores on a sac fly. And long ball, homers from Edwin and Colby.

Josh Johnson was pretty good, getting his first win. He got in trouble in the first, loading the bases, but go out of it. Then he went on a stretch of 11 straight outs. He gave up a couple of runs in the 6th and a couple more in the 7th but the game was in hand by then. In all 7 hits, 4 earned, 1 walk, 5 k in 6 innings, plus 2 batters. Not great, but he didn't have to be.

Aaron Loup, Juan Perez and Dustin McGowan pitched the last 3 innings. Dustin gave up a solo homer in the 9th but had 2 nice strikeouts.

There was some nice defense too. Izturis made a nice double play, catching grounder, beating out Adam Jones to 3rd and throwing to first. I thought JP did a good job behind the plate, especially in the first, when Johnson got Adam Jones chasing pitches low and outside. JP did get a passed ball, late in the game, whiffing on a Juan Perez fastball, high above the strike zone.

Jays of the Day: you could give one to everyone, but Johnson had a .120 WPA, Edwin was .163 and JP (.102).

No one gets Suckage, Kawasaki was the low mark at -.020.

Of note, Pedro Strop came in in the 8th inning and hit Rajai Davis in the back with a pitch. Rajai had the walk off hit against Strop in the first game of the series. Jose followed with a bases clearing double. Early in the game T.J. McFarland came up and in on Kawasaki, bringing the ire of the pretty much sellout crowd down on him. Don't hit Munenori, we will get you if you do.

Tomorrow we continue the winning streak in Tampa against the Rays. Esmil Rogers (3-2, 3.14) goes up against Jeremy Hellickson (5-3, 5.50). It looks like the Jay aren't going to call up Jose Reyes until after his series. He'll likely join the team in Boston.

Nice GameThread again. 64 of us posted 1,505 comments. expos&nordiques4ever led the way with an impressive 149 comments. Great job for a man who has lost two teams.