The Jays moved 2.5 games in front of Boston and New York, and stayed 1.5 games ahead of the second-place Orioles, with a solid 5-2 win in Oakland. The key blow was once again struck by The Dude Himself, Eric Hinske, whose fourth-inning homer off Dan Haren capped a two-out rally and plated three runs.
Hinske made a winner out of Josh Towers, who threw 100 pitches in pitching 6 2/3 innings and facing 27 batters. I had assumed that Towers pitching into the seventh inning was unusual, but in fact he did so regularly last year (9 times in his 21 starts). A series of long at-bats early in the game meant that Josh was unable to duplicate his normally stellar figures in pitches per at-bat - like Roy Halladay, Josh is most effective when he gets hitters to put the ball in play earlier in the count. However, he came back later to record an efficient series of outs and struck out six, matching his total from his earlier start in Tampa. Until that day, Towers had not stuck out six since September 18, 2003 against the infamously bad 2003 Tigers.
I was hoping to have a great deal to say about this game, especially when it looked likely that the Jays would win, when of course fate intervened. During the sixth inning, already faced with no TV and following the game via radio and GameDay, my son woke up and I was promptly in for two hours of getting him back to sleep. Needless to say, by the time I returned to the computer, the game was long over.
What, then, to say? Maybe I'll round up the day's other games.
Rangers got eight runs
Mostly enough to win games
Angels got thirteen
Milton Bradley rules
Giant rookie makes key botch
LA wins 9-8
Marquis pitches great
And hits a three-run triple
Cards 5 Cincy 1
Lo Duca's on fire
Went three for four, homered
Florida 8-2
Pittsburgh-Milwaukee
Ugh. Really, do we care? It's
Pittsburgh-Milwaukee...
Vidro's blast was big
Schneider's double was bigger
And Nats win 4-3
Brian Roberts has
Four homers already - wow!
Sosa hit one too
Would-be great matchup
Prior versus Jake Peavy
Padres-Cubs : POSTPONED
Shannon Stewart hit
A walkoff double; the Twins
Just kept coming back
Jays 5 Oakland 2
I already told you this
But it's nice to hear
D-Backs 4 Rox 2:
Webb was very efficient
Rox have lost six straight
Shame, dishonour; Craig
The first to resort to a
Haiku Game Report
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050413021052834