The 4-Out Rally/ April 28- Jays vs. Rangers

Well it's getaway day.  Kind of sucks to leave Texas the way this series has gone so far, as the bats have come alive.  Even Juan Rivera.  I know right?  Anyway, that game last night was kind of bullshit.  Jojo Reyes looked good for about as long as he was capable before giving up 6 unearned runs in the 3rd inning.  Let's examine that one, shall we?

First off, David Murphy lines out to Yunel Escobar.  Simple enough.  Next batter is Yorvit Torrealba, who hit a sharp grounder to third, which Edwin Encarnacion made a pretty decent play to get to, but couldn't get the throw up, earning an error.  I'm still kind of meh on the error call, since it was hit sharply enough that it could have gotten through, but whatever.  Mitch Moreland then struck out, for the 2nd (3rd-ish) out.  Reyes then did this to Ian Kinsler:

If you can't see that very well or aren't familiar with Pitch F/X, that graph shows the location of every pitch thrown in the AB.  The first pitch was that pretty red one right down the center of the plate, taken for a strike.  The second pitch is the green one on the right side, called a ball outside for some reason.  Kinsler then fouled off a pitch that was actually outside the zone (dark red on the top right corner), before throwing that wild pitch (green bottom).  Another foul ball (top right again) before painting the corner twice and getting no calls, earning a 6 strike walk.

Visibly rattled, Reyes threw meatballs to both Elvis Andrus and Michael Young, beaned Adrian Beltre, gave up a single to Nelson Cruz on what was actually a decent pitch (though probably would have been called a ball based on that Kinsler at-bat), and then hung one over the plate to everybody's favorite Jay-for-a-day, Mike Napoli, who hit a gapper for a double to cap off a 6-run rally that ultimately shouldn't have happened.

Yeah it was unfortunate, but sometimes, as a big league starter auditioning for 29 other teams, you might have to pick up your defense once in a while, or take your lumps, or whatever other baseball cliche you might like to use in this situation.  The silver lining in the situation is two-fold for me; first, Jojo Reyes doesn't have what it takes to be in a big league rotation, especially in the AL East, and 2) Carlos Villanueva was the balls in relief of Jojo, pitching 3.1 IP of hitless, 1 walk baseball, earning the crudely cut Zaun-head.  PLEEEEEASE let him start next time instead of Jojo.  Fuck.  Bluebird Banter has a suggestion of what to do with him.

We all knew this Jojo thing wasn't going to work out in the long run, and that, at best, Jojo was just going to be Dana Eveland 2.0 (for anyone who doesn't remember that, the Jays signed Eveland off the scrap heap before last season and got a good spring and a handful of starts out of him before trading him for a C-grade prospect).  Now I'm just praying to the nearest Jehovah that he gets cut, or at least sent to the bullpen so FARRELL DOESN'T BRING IN FUCKING OCTAVIO DOTEL TO FACE A LEFT-HANDED BATTER IN A TIE GAME.  Literally every Bluejays blogger writes this, so I don't know why it's still a secret to Farrell, but lefties have a career OPS of over .900 against Dotel.  Remember how Jose Bautista was last year?  That's what the average LHB has done against Dotel over the course of his career.

Sigh, settle down.  It wasn't really all that bad.  The Jays put up another 6 runs off Rangers pitching, including two more hits from Adam Lind, a big RBI double from Jose Beastista, and another tater and 3 hits total from Juan Rivera, who has actually gotten on base over 50% of the time in his last 26 AB's.  Not bad.  He's finally got the average up to .210, which is still fucking atrocious, given the amount of time he's spent at DH this year.

And more good news: Brandon Morrow starts for the Jays tonight!  He gave up a 2-run shot in the first inning in his last start against Tampa, and then answered by striking out 10 in 5.1 IP, being downright dominant.  I totally love watching this guy pitch.  He's up against Alexi Ogando for Texas, who has been real nasty so far (3-0, 2.13 ERA, .79 WHIP).

Elsewhere in the league, it snowed in Minnesota during the Twins game last night.  Damn Earth.

Canadian stuff: Erik Bedard picked up his first win in over 2 years, after struggling through injuries.  Fellow injury-prone Canadian Jeff Francis opted for the less effective 5-run first inning, picking up the loss for KC.

How about Bartolo Colon?  Dude didn't even pitch last season, but went 8 strong for the Yankees last night, hitting the mid-90's in the 7th and 8th innings.  The 38-year old blob threw 99 pitches, scattering 7 hits over 8 innings, and gave himself several rounds of applause.  Apparently The White Sox loss in this one was due to some tough guy umpire, according to manager Ozzie Guillen's Twitter account, which was updated from the clubhouse after he was ejected in the first inning for freaking out.

I was looking for a gif of those Lillibridge catches from the other day, but found what appears to be Texas fans trolling Bautista, only to be trolled back nicely.

Link to the Lillibridge catches btw.

One more thing: I know you people are reading this.  I had 93 unique hits yesterday and another 60-something the day before.  Drop a fucking comment.  I thought we were friends.

Early game today btw, starting at 2:00PM ET.

Oh great, Yunel gets the day off.  Predicting 2 solo HR's from Bautista today.  Fortunately we only need one run since Brandon Morrow is pitching.

Jays-

Mccoy 2B
Patterson CF
Beastista RF
Lind 1B
Rivera DH
Encarnacion 3B
Snider LF
Molina C
Sir John A. Macdonald SS

Pitching: Morrow

Rangers-

Kinsler 2B
Andrus SS
Young DH
Beltre 3B
Cruz LF
Moreland RF
Napoli C (!)
Davis 1B
Borbon CF

Pitching: Ogando