Friday 13 May 2011

May 13- Jays vs. Twins: Go Ricky


Ricky Romero takes to the hill tonight against the Twins, who will throw Carl Pavano at us.  The Jays took 3 of 4 from Minnesota to start the season, and Minnesota really sucks so far this year, so these are good news items.  Yesterday was an offday, which explains why I'm previewing tonight's game already.

As of right now, it looks like Adam Lind will play tonight.  If you've been under a rock for the last week, he's been out with back spasms, but is apparently set to return, playing DH.  Juan Rivera takes first, apparently...  Jayson Nix is scheduled to return from the 15-day DL on Sunday.
**update** Aaaand Adam Lind is scratched.  EE at 1st, Rivera at DH.

Other than that... don't really have much for ya.  Couple links I guess:

Bluebird Banter has a piece about Kyle Drabek's makeup.

Here's something that questions the Carl Pavano signing of this past offseason.

Just how clutch can some people be?  Apparently about as clutch as a puck to the head. (Note: that is not what the actual thesis of this post is.)  But really, this is a pretty good post that shows that the whole concept of "clutch hitting" is pretty much a small sample size taken too seriously.

Not sure how I missed this the other day, but the White Sox scored the winning run in the 10th inning the other night on a  wild pitch during an attempted intentional walk.  Serious, man?  Still not as bad as this one though. Know what else I missed the other day?  From the same game?  Jake Peavy came back and pitched 6 solid innings, allowing 4 runs on 7 hits, striking out 4 and walking none.  Good for him.

The Palm Beach Post reports that Hanley Ramirez, who's been slumping all year long so far, has said in an interview "By May 30, I will have seven homers. And I'll be batting .290. You better take a picture. Write it down."  He has 2 HR and is batting .217 to this point.  Good luck kid.

Here is a video of Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse handing in the lineup card for the Cards while impersonating manager Tony Larussa, who has missed the last few games due to health concerns.

Around the League


Carlos Beltran hit 3 2-run homers yesterday, one to each field, as the Mets beat up on Ubaldo Jimenez, who is performing less than admirably considering the year he had last year.  Beltran's performance yesterday might be convincing enough to get some team to take a flyer on him as a deadline acquisition, which would open up some much needed payroll flexibility for the Mets.

Jaime Garcia is still crushing, improving to 5-0 yesterday after another good effort, going 7 innings allowing 9 hits and just 1 run.  Matt Holiday hit another homerun and Colby Rasmus went 3 for 5 in a 9-1 win.

Eric Hosmer hit another homerun in the 6-run second inning for the Royals, as they beat the Yankees 11-5.  The Yanks scored 4 in the 5th inning to make it look less embarrassing, but this game was ugly through and through.

Finally, some sad news. Former Jays pitching coach Mel Queen died yesterday.  He was 69. Former Twins slugger and all-time American League HR leader Harmon Killebrew has also announced that his fight against cancer is coming to a close as he's entered hospice care.

Lineups:

Jays

Escobar SS
Patterson LF
Bautista RF
Rivera DH
Hill 2B
Arencibia C
Encarnacion 1B
McDonald 3B
Davis CF

Pitching: Romero


Twins

Span CF
Plouffe SS
Kubel DH
Morneau 1B
Young LF
Cuddyer RF
Valencia 3B
Hughes 2B
Butera C

Pitching: Pavano

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