Thursday bantering

Yesterday when i woke up, i switched on my phone to check the Jays v OriLOLes score and saw that we were 1-0 up, going into the 8th. Hmm, a tight game i thought. Can we hold on?

Then after breakfast i checked the final score to see it was 6-0! What happened i wondered as i browsed the box score. Miguel Castro happened. It all made sense.

Thomas the Tank

As we all know, Thomas Pannone was near perfect in his big league starting debut. He went seven innings, giving up just the one hit while walking two and striking out three. He hit one batter and threw 108 pitches, becoming the first Blue Jay to throw six-plus innings of no-hit ball in his first MLB start.

Not only did he baffle the OriLOLes hitters with his blistering 89mph fastball but he kept them off balance with his change up and curve. At times he reminded me of our recently departed J A Happ (no, he isn’t dead. He went to the Yankees. So he is dead to me).

Pannone was the 14th starter used by the Jays this season, tying the franchise record set in 2017. He also was the sixth pitcher this season to make his first MLB start, a new club high.

Meanwhile Devon Travis’s three-run homer in the 8th snapped his 0-for-18 stretch. Devo has now hit 34 home runs as a Jays second basemen to tie Orlando Hudson for third all-time (Aaron Hill is first with 90 and some other Cleveland cast off called Roberto Alomar has 54) .

Morales is mashing

With home runs in four straight games, Kendrys Morales became the 15th Jays player (to hit a home run in at least four consecutive games (the last was Edwin Encarnacion – from Sept. 28 – Oct. 3, 2015).

Slo-Mo, who had a homer and single on Wednesday, extended his hit streak to seven games and is hitting .565 (13-for-23) with five HR, 10-RBI and a 1.817 OPS over that stretch. He has the longest active home run streak in the Majors. Its the apocalypse i tell you...

Suitcases, spiders and snowmobiles

There is chance that we may see Aaron Sanchez this weekend at long last. The Aaron Sanchez who use to pitch for us. Who has been on the 60 day DL. And why was that exactly? Because he mangled his own finger in a suitcase.

Yes, we can now add Sanchez to the Hall of Fame of list of bizarre Blue Jay injuries. There are some others you may or may not remember:

Michael Saunders
Culprit: Sprinkler head
Injury: in 2015 he suffered a torn meniscus when taking fly balls at the Jays Spring Training complex, thanks to treading on a sprinker head.

Brett Cecil
Culprit: Kitchen knife 2010, Blender 2011
Injury: Lacerated thumb 2010 trying to cut a chicken breast. Sliced fingers in 2011 when trying to clean a blender.

Maicer Izturis
Culprit: Dugout Steps
Injury: Tore his LCL in his left knee falling down the dugout steps and was ruled out for the 2014 season.

Colby Rasmus
Culprit: a baseball
Injury: An errant ball thrown by Anthony Gose that hit Colby Rasmus square in the face. Video goodness here.

Ricky Romero & Kevin Pillar
Culprit: sneezing
Injury: Abdominal strain. Romero went on the 15 Day DL and Pillar was out for a week.

Glenallen Hill
Culprit: A nightmare about spiders!
Injury: Had a nightmare which caused him to fall down stairs, crash through a glass table and suffer cuts and bruises.

Rickey Henderson
Culprit: Ice pack
Injury: Frost bite. In August. Left the ice pack on his leg too long.

And the most Canadian injury goes to:

Paul Quantrill
Culprit: Snowmobile
Injury: In 1999, Paul Quantrill he broke his leg in a snowmobile accident, He did initially reported it as a tobogganing accident, but later confessed he broke his leg on a snowmobile. This ensured his Canadian masculinity card wasn’t revoked.

(Mis)Plays of the Day

Mitch Garver of the Twins - you had one job...

Jesus Aguilar forgets that a pickoff move involves him at 1B: