Blue Jays 13, Orioles 0: Thoughts for Jo-Jo, But No Prayers This Time

Dinger aftermath.

With Brian Tallet safely DFA'd, the Blue Jays took the field with a spring in their step last night and absolutely punished poor, sweet Jo-Jo Reyes, who didn't make it out of the third. Blue Jays bats were relentless, except I guess for the bat of Mike McCoy, which relented quite a lot, actually. But everybody else pounded the ball. Escobar? 4-6. Thames? 4-5 with a double. Bautista? A three-run home run, his league-leading thirty-ninth. E5 went 4-5, Kelly Johnson homered, as did big fat Jose Molina. It was awesome.


All the while, Henderson Alvarez kept right on throwing strikes, and forcing ground outs with a great sinker. Three hits, no walks, and five strikeouts over eight innings of work earned him the first win of his career, and maybe this is a dude who should be in the back end of the rotation next year, right? I know it was just the O's, but still. I know that all experts agree that the Blue Jays have a ton of pitching coming, and so I should be patient, but pretty much everybody but Ricky Romero and Casey Janssen has me down these days so I am flailing a little. I can't shake the Drabek thing, basically, and I really wanted Brett Cecil to prove craftier. Oh hey that totally reminds me: over at Frangraphs, Jesse Wolfersberger (possibly a real name) dares to ask the question, "Why Are Lefties Crafty?" in an article that is completely worth your while. "It turns out, this is one historical saying that holds up under statistical analysis," he contends, and then shows you math in a persuasive way.  



Unrelatedly, I would also like to draw your attention to how Milwaukee Brewers' slugger Ryan Braun was totally on his way to an inside-the-park home run last night before he stumbled between third and home and got caught in a rundown to the delight and straight-up merriment of all. A photo essay on this subject follows.

KS