That's a bit more like it.
The Good Guys won it 5-2 in the Bronx last night. AJ pitched into the seventh and looked good, I don't think he had his best fastball, but his changeup was good and he seemed to gain more and more confidence with his curve as the game progressed. Brian Tallett came in for the 7th and 8th and looked very comfortable, before giving way to Accardo for the save. Accardo had hardly drawn breath before he was in a jam, through no fault of his own, after Hill lost the handle on a grounder and Abreu blooped a single in front of Wells. He recovered well to strikeout Arod and quickly set the next two hitters down. The hitting wasn't quite so impressive last night, even against the shadow of Mike Mussina's former self. Wells at least was htting the ball with authority, but Eckstein still hasn't hit one out of the infield and Thomas continues to look ineffective and mystified.
* Aaron Hill is wasted in the seventh spot in the lineup. He should be hitting first or second.
* The Jays hit into five double plays - I'm imagining Shea Hillenbrand in a hunting blind somewhere sticking pins into a Jays voodoo doll and cackling quietly to himself.
* Marty Pevey was channeling 'Wave Em Home' Wendell Kim last night. If Abreu had made a couple of straight throws two Jays runners could have been out by ten feet instead of scoring. Let's hope this was just a bad day at the office for Pevey, the last thing the Jays need is to find another way to beat themselves.
Trivia - this came up in the game chat: apart from Jeter with the Evil Empire and Varitek with the Just as Evil Empire, who else in MLB gets to feel all self important by wearing a C on their chest ?
Game Day - Dustin McGowan (expected to be over his flu) is set to go against Phil Hughes tonight. McGowan garnered a lot of pundit attention over the winter after his strong second half last year, he was even mentioned as a sleeper for the Cy Young award. I'm hoping Brandon League gets into tonight's game, I think he's going to be a very important player for the jays this year and I'm eager to see what he's got.
Elsewhere it was a very good day for some unheralded starting pitchers. Sabermetric favourite Brain Bannister (7 IP 0R), Tim Redding (Tim Redding!) (7IP 0R), Joe Saunders (8IP 0R), Nick Blackburn (7IP 1R) and Carlos Silva (7IP 1R) and had terrific performances yesterday.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080403075445716