Now that’s more like it, Jays thump Twins

Twins 8 Blue Jays 15

Now that was the brand of Blue Jays baseball I’ve been missing.

The good guys had 15 hits, 5 walks, just 4 strikeouts and 4 home runs.

Some of the highlights:

• Justin Smoak: 3 for 5, home run, 5 RBI. He had a 3-run home run in the 2nd inning, to get us on the scoreboard. He was hitting the ball hard all game.
• Russell Martin: 2 for 5, home run, double, 5 RBI. He had a 3-run double, in the 6th inning, just when the Twins were getting uncomfortably close again.
• Darwin Barney: 3 for 5, homer, double, single.
• Josh Donaldson: 2 for 3, homer, walk, 3 RBI.
• Jose Bautista: 2 for 4, double, walk. He was making good contact.
• Melvin Upton: 2 for 5. Glad to see him swinging the bat so well lately.
• Troy Tulowitzki: 1 for 3. 2 walks.

Only Jays with 0 fors were Edwin (0 for 4, walk, 2 runs, 1 RBI) and Ezequiel (0 for 5, run).

On the pitching end, Francisco Liriano wasn’t great, but he was good enough. He fought through 5 innings. He gave up 4 walks, but just 2 hits and he had 7 strikeouts. He allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, but he did his best work with runners on base.

It would have been nice if he could have pitched a little deeper into the game, but he was at 102 pitches after 5.

The bullpen was ok, but, with the lead we had, we didn’t need perfect.

• Joe Biagini gave up a run on 2 hits in his inning.
• Joaquin Benoit allowed a single, but it was quickly erased on a double play.
• Aaron Loup fought his way through the last 2 innings, giving up 4 hits, 3 earned, 1 walk with 1 strikeout. He was just in the ‘throw it over the plate and hope they hit it at someone’ mode.

Nice to win a laugher, it has been way too long.

Jays of the Day: Smoak (.299 WPA) and Donaldson (.096) had the numbers. I’m giving one to Martin too, even with the .067 WPA. I figure if you drive in 5, you ought to get a JoD.

No Suckage Jays. Liriano had the low mark at -.061.

We had 1037 comments in a relaxed GameThread. TimmyMax led us to victory. Great job.