Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4: Knuckleballers Own

Tim Wakefield, shown here owning.

Either the Red Sox had some killer scouting report on Ricky Romero, or Romero was just junk out there, because the Sox were uncharacteristically free-swingers last night. They were not at all their usual patient selves, but they knocked the ball all over the place, so I am not dissing so much as noting. A night after Brett Cecil went the distance in a loss, Romero was out of the game in the fifth, so it was kind of a long night for the bullpen, who actually totally shut the door the rest of the way (nice job, bullpen). I didn't stay up through the forty-minute rain delay so I can't even act like I was heartbroken when the Blue Jays brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth or anything. I was resting comfortably. 


There's kind of an interesting thing going on with Travis Snider right now, I should mention. Since being recalled from Las Vegas, he's hit four doubles in three games. One would think that everything is cool, then, right? But both Gregg Zaun (who I loathe) and Alan Ashby (who I admire) have said that his swing is still not quite right in the way that it was not quite right before: he's still taking these basically one-handed hacks at breaking balls, and right now they're falling in, but over the long haul he's going to have the same problems that got him sent down, they say. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Some guys have pretty solid careers with kind of mechanically awful swings, but not many.


Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the WAR leader boards at Baseball Reference, where you can plainly see that Jose Bautista sits not only atop these standings but also the haters. Also, as much as everyone is making of Justin Verlander, I am not sure we are making enough of Justin Verlander. And maybe, maybe Andrew McCutcheon should have made the NL All-Star team.


A.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
J.Bautista	TOR	6.1
J.Verlander	DET	4.8
A.Gonzalez	BOS	4.5
J.Weaver	LAA	4.4
J.Beckett	BOS	4.1

N.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
M.Kemp	LAD	5.4
A.McCutchen	PIT	5.0
R.Halladay	PHI	4.5
R.Braun	MIL	4.2
C.Hamels	PHI	4.2

KS

Pirates 7, Blue Jays 6: So it has come to this, then.

No doubt intended as good-natured ribbing, I actually agree with the sign.

I know that the Pirates stubborn refusal to drop below the .500 mark is one of the nicer stories in baseball this year, given the extent to which they have awfuled their way through the better part of two decades now, but come on. Much of the blame, sort of, falls at the feet of Jo-Jo, who gave up six runs and didn't get out of the fourth, but as we have discussed previously, there is really no faulting Jo-Jo for anything, as he is only what he is. The bullpen only allowed one run the rest of the way, but that one run, Andrew McCutchen's solo shot in the seventh, ended up being the killer, as the Blue Jays otherwise potentially rad four-home-run comeback fell short. E5 hit a pair,  Corey Patterson had another, and Jose Bautista hit his league-leading/hater-smashing 24th, but in the end it was nothing but a loss. At home. To the Pirates.  


This is not, nor cannot come to good.


KS