So when most of your lineup is vastly under performing their career norms sometimes math just works to your favour. The Blue Jays bats woke up in a big way in a mid-week mini series versus the San Francisco Giants. Barry Zito and Ryan Vogelsong definitely paid the price for statistical noise from the Blue Jays struggling batters. Blue Jays win on aggregate 21-9 over the two-game set.
Wes recapped Game 2:
We know exactly how it feels when a good pitcher (Vogelsong) has a tough start to the year, then gets victimized by shoddy fielding. Errors by normally-surehanded fielders Marco Scutaro and Angel Pagan led to a 5-1 lead after the first inning. All of the runs were unearned. They kicked it around a little in the second inning, too, and the Jays scored some more. Didn’t the 8-1 lead look familiar, but a little out of place? It’s no time to gloat. We’ve seen some laughers, but it’s been the other team laughing so far this season.
The Jays’ offense is the focus of this recap, and they’ve obliged by taking the Giants out to the wood house. John Gibbons has received his fair share of criticism for the Jays’ bad start, but he doesn’t get much praise for the job he’s done. One of the experiments he’s done since Jose Reyes’ injury is to put Melky at the top of the line-up, followed by Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and JP Arencibia. The team’s offensive surge owes part of its momentum to this particular move. Since Gibby filled out that Melky-Jose-Edwin first line-up card against BOS on May 11, they’ve combined to go 21-46 (.457).
Read all of his awesome prior game recaps here.
Wes also wrote an awesome piece on Brandon Morrow. It’s a must read.
Be sure to check out the daily AL East Prospect report. Focusing on the five AL East farm systems and notable daily performances!
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CURRENT RECORD: 17-24, 5th place, 8.5 games out of first place. (-34 run differential)
Here are the quick recaps and boxscores:
Game 1 – Blue Jays 10, Giants 6 – RA Dickey strikes out ten and Melky Cabrera chips in with four hits.
Game 2 – Blue Jays 11, Giants 3 – Arencibia, Lind homer in rout of Giants. Jays bat around in two straight games.
UP NEXT: Off day Thursday followed by a huge three game series versus the division leading New York Yankees (25-15, +16 run differential). The Blue Jays have ten straight games versus AL East teams, all of whom are ahead of them in the standings. Needless to say…HUGE!
AL Eastbound & Down 