Hey, a save!

Didn't lose in the 9th inning, what more can you ask for?

Kyle Drabek still isn't quite there yet.  I'm not asking for Halladay 2.0 here (yet), but I do want to see a flash of what he can do.  I mean, he's a power pitcher, and he didn't strike out a batter, walking three over 5.1 IP, and most importantly, he threw just 56 strikes over 103 pitches.  Too many pitches, stemming from too many balls.

JP Arencibia and Adam Lind both hit homeruns, which is good.  Always nice to get some run support for your struggling pitchers, though Kansas City's defense Yakety Sax'ed their way to some of those runs.

I guess Adam Lind gets the Zaunny, though JP is pretty close with his 2-run shot that really took some air out of the Royals sails.  JP's defence behind the plate was pretty bad though, so I was pretty upset with him before that tater.

Jose Bautista continued his slump, only managing to go 1-for-2 with 2 walks (sarcastic use of "slump" is sarcastic).

Yunel Escobar left the game last night after the top half of the 4th inning, with what John Farrell called tightness in his quad.  He's listed as day-to-day. John Mcdonald is still on the DL, so Mike Mccoy!

Coupla Links


Fangraphs charts Jose Bautista's homer pace of this season, comparing it with other great homerun seasons such as Jose Bautista's 2010, Barry Bonds' 2001, Mcgwire's 99 and Babe Ruth's 19 ought 27.   Bautista, or course, has gone 9 games now without a homerun (hitting like .340 with an OBP of .500+ or something like that).

Fangraphs also looks at Kyle Drabek, and questions the Jays' decision of keeping him in the majors.

I missed this last week when it first came out, and then forgot to link it the other day... Rob Neyer thinks that the Jays are for real.

The ever-so-excellent Joe Posnanski writes about his memories of Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals, before he moves away to not Kansas City.

Al Yellon of SBNation wants 26-man rosters, instead of the current 25, thanks to the way pitchers are handled in this day and age.

And finally, Jose Bautista leads All-star voting.  And why shouldn't he?  He's been the best player in baseball so far this season (though Albert Pujols is on fire...).  The real problem I see here is that Yankees lead pretty much every category that doesn't have Jose Bautista in it, including Jorge Posada coming in at 3rd place among AL DH's, which makes a mockery of this system.  Moreover, guys like Matt Joyce, Yunel Escobar, and Drew Stubbs probably won't make it to the game, just so scrubs like Jeter and Posada can find spots.  Ichiro is having his worst season ever, but has still managed to accrue the entire Asian vote, doing what I like to call "Yao Minging".

Carlos Skillanueva gets the start tonight for Toronto.  Danny Duffy goes for KC in his 5th career start.

Lineups
Jays
McCoy SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Lind DH
Rivera 1B
Molina C
Hill 2B
Davis CF
Nix 3B

Villanueva P


Royals
Gordon LF
Cabrera CF
Hosmer 1B
Francoeur RF
Butler DH
Betemit 3B
Getz 2B
Pena C
Escobar SS

Duffy P