Good first 8 innings yesterday, huh?
Brandon Morrow offered his best start of the season, with JP Arencibia behind the plate, no less. Funny how it was right around this point in the year last year where Morrow started to become the team's best pitcher (it was actually a little bit earlier, but whatever).
Bit of a bullpen clusterfuck though. Rzepscynski looked downright nasty with the ball moving all over the place, enough to strike out everyone that he didn't bean, managing to confuse JP twice. The John McDonald error didn't help either. I dunno, it's not as bad as everyone seems to think, and with this anemic-at-times offense, this is sort of something you've just got to expect from time to time. Maybe with all the 1- and 2-run losses this year, things will even out next year when it matters and we can get some 1-run wins? Is that too optimistic?
Brandon Morrow really stood out for me yesterday, and earned a Zaun head. There were flashes of it in his last start, but yesterday was the first time that I really thought that he was the same pitcher as he was in the second half of last year. I'd love to see more consistency in throwing strikes (duh...) since he's just so nasty. He does throw way too many balls, and thus too many pitches and not enough innings, to be considered a true ace (not that that title means anything), but I'd love to see him get deeper in to ballgames, or at least get to the point he's getting to without throwing 120 pitches each time out there.
There is something to be said about that Corey Patterson steal in the 8th inning last night with Jose Bautista at the plate. There was a bit of a twitter stank last night; I mean obviously it's kind of silly to open up a base with Bautista at the plate in a tie game in the 8th inning, we can all pretty much agree with that one. Here's where I want to kind of defend the play.
In a 2-1 count, with the outfield playing with their backs to the fences to prevent anything over their heads. Obviously if it's a tater, it's a tater and it doesn't matter where the defense lines up. The White Sox counteract the stolen base strategy by not throwing to second, and intentionally walking Bautista the way it happened. If the ball is hit... there's a chance that it's a grounder and a double play, however small. Patterson running obviously helps avoid that, whatever. But let's say it's a hit. If it's a light single, Patterson moves to third, we're in pretty much the same spot as we were before to be honest, probably needing a single from Juan Rivera. A gapper scores a run.
If Patterson doesn't steal, a gapper doesn't score a run, a ball just leads to an intentional walk. If Bautista is ever going to get a pitch to hit, it's going to be on the 2-1 count. 2-2 might be a good pitch, but in order for that to happen, it has to actually be a strike, in which case, I'd trust my best hitter to put a good swing on it.
Basically what I'm trying to say here, is that stealing here is actually kind of defensible, but only in this exact situation. The pros and cons of this steal are pretty negligible, so it basically comes down to a calculated risk and aggressive move that hardly has any real bearing on the game, but without the steal, it needs to be either a) a homerun, or b) 2 hits.
Heh.
Coupla Links
MLBTR has some Jays stuff here.
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet has a bunch of stuff for us, and I'll just link to his twitter here and you can find it from the source yourselves:
Dustin McGowan is set to start a rehab assignment. Since he's on the 40-man roster and has no options left, the Jays have 30 days to either call him up to the big league club, or outright him to the minors, which would expose him to the other 29 clubs through waivers.
Jesse Carlson had exploratory surgery either yesterday or the day before, where they found a tear in his rotator cuff or labrum or something. They fixed that up, but he's going to be out for the season.
Adam Lind, after like 80 setbacks, is set to play in an extended spring training game tomorrow. I'm pretty sure that EST is finished really soon, which may mean rehab starts in AAA with Snider and Cecil.
Hey, remember a couple weeks ago when David Purcey was traded for a minor league reliever? Well he just got traded again, this time to the Tigers for Scott Sizemore, who looks like he's going to be not terrible at some point, and thus, the A's just finished a trade-rape of the Bluejays (to be fair to AA, it was trade for something or give him away for nothing, soooo). Detroit meanwhile, for some reason, has 4 lefty relievers in their bullpen now, though there are minor-league options there. From the A's perspective, this probably opens up a spot on the 25-man roster for Andrew Bailey, who is expected back within the next week.
Kyle Drabek vs. Mark Buerhle tonight. Do better tonight guys, though I can't see how that's possible with Jose Molina DH'ing. Let's see if these lineups are accurate.
Jays
Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera 1B
Arencibia C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Molina DH
Nix 3B
Drabek P
Whites
Pierre LF
Ramirez SS
Quentin RF
Konerko 1B
Pierzynski C
Rios CF
Dunn DH
Vizquel 3B
Beckham 2B
Buehrle P
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