Blue Jays 5, Orioles: 4: Another Blow Stuck Against the Loathsome Kevin Gregg

OH NOES KEVIN GREGG I THINK HE IS IN THERE

In the early going, there was much to cheer: Jose Bautista's 41st home run of the season; Brett Lawrie's 9th; Dewayne Wise's throw to the plate to end the third inning; and Lawrie's ridiculous bare-handed play on a chopper to third to end the fourth. Add to this another solid outing by young Henderson Alvarez, and it was easy to not get all that bent out of shape when Jesse Litsch couldn't quite keep it together in the eighth, allowing Vladimir Guerrero (bless him) to double in the go-ahead run. It had been a pretty good one! It would have been OK had the Blue Jays come up just a little short. It seriously would have been. I was at peace.


However! After Clay Rapada -- sleeper pick for best name in the majors, in my view -- got David Cooper swinging to open the ninth, Buck Showalter went to Kevin Gregg to close things out, because he is, as you know, A Closer, and that's vitally important. To his goonish, loathsome credit, Gregg managed to put Lawrie away swinging and totally get two strikes on Kelly Johnson before falling apart completely and ruining everything. Johnson worked a walk, which brought Jose Molina to the plate, and I had every expectation that J. P. Arencibia would be brought out to  pinch hit at that point, playing for the longball, you know? But as Alan Ashby rightly noted, that's a tough call for manager John Farrell: Arencibia has the power, but the lovably plump Molina hits for the much better average. Sure enough, Molina singled (oh, there was a pinch runner alright: it was Chris Woodward), and Adam Lowen -- a former Orioles pitcher on whom the Blue Jays took a flyer as an outfielder, sent to A-ball, and here we are three years later -- came to the plate for Dewayne Wise, and was awarded first after being ever so faintly brushed by a pitch. 


So it was with two out and the bases loaded that John Farrell at last brought J. P. Arencibia off the bench, at which point the irredeemable Gregg uncorked a wild pitch that brought home the tying run, and allowed a crisp single to left to bring in the game winner. Take that, Kevin Gregg: the universe is never going to forgive you for being the way you were with Cito, and I am but part of the universe.


To conclude on an unrelated topic, I would like to pass along that Jerry Howarth mentioned yesterday that he had served as master of ceremonies at Adam Lind's wedding last year (registry details here if you have yet to send a gift; pic of the happy couple here), which, I don't know, I found both nice and perhaps surprisingly amusing. "There she goes!" etc. 


Oh actually to conclude, here is rad shot of Jose Bautista rounding the bases. 

JOSE JOSE

KS