Before I was even born - it's such a gamble when you get a face. It's fascinating to observe what the mirror does, but when I dine it's for the wall that I set a place.
Blue Jays 6, Athletics 3. Romero pitches well again. Bullpen holds. Gregg dominates. Jays run their home record to 5-9, and their overall mark to 11-12. Nobody cares. Attendance is 10,721. It does look bigger on TV than, say, the 16,696 who allegedly gathered in San Diego to watch Padres-Brewers. What's wrong with a little creative accounting?
This was John Buck's night. He hit three titanic homers off Justin Duchscherer, Jerry Blevins and Craig Breslow. The homers went 372, 410 and 452 feet respectively, according to Hit Tracker. Yeah, they actually did let two lefty relievers face him. I don't get it either. Maybe it was out of respect for Snider, who batted after Buck and also homered off Duchscherer in his first at-bat. Apparently, Oakland does not interpret Snider as 9-hitter to mean "Please treat this man as our worst hitter." Or they do and they're not falling for it.
Buck's performance was the 15th three-homer game in Jays history, and the third one by a catcher. Ernie Whitt and Darrin Fletcher have also gone deep three times for Toronto. It was the first three-homer game in the majors since Adam Lind's at Fenway on September 29, 2009.
Buck swings hard and hits everything hard. Sometimes it's baseballs he hits, and sometimes it's air. I can't recall any weak contact coming off his bat. I would compare him to Robinson Cano, if Cano struck out literally almost half the time and couldn't run at all. But when Buck does connect, the poor ball gets mauled. He's hitting .194/.239/.468. Of his 12 hits, 4 are homers, 5 are
doubles, and 3 are singles. His .274 isolated power doesn't even lead
the team. Wells (.364?!?!) and Gonzalez (.287?!) are higher.
Okay, here's a challenge. Of all the possible batter/pitcher matchups in the American League, which one is the most lopsided in the defense's favor? In other words, what's the biggest possible auto-out in a neutral park. So, Jon Lester against Lyle Overbay is pretty high on the list, and Scott Schoeneweis against Marcus Thames is not so high.
I mention Thames because, incidentally, he is currently batting .588/.650/.941 for the Yankees, who are using him almost exclusively as a platoon starter against LHPs, and pinch-hitting immediately when the lefty starter gets pulled no matter how well Thames is hitting. Meanwhile, Granderson, Johnson and Teixeira sit at .705, .617 and .557 OPS, respectively. Free Marcus Thames! He'll probably play tonight against John Danks and the White Sox. For some reason the Yankees, starting Javier Vazquez, are a -240 favorite. That seems excessive.
I didn't realize it was possible to blow a team out in San Diego, but the Padres pulled it off last night, beating down Doug Davis and the Brewers 9-0. They used 13 singles, 2 walks and 0 extra-base hits. Bottom 4, score tied 0-0: E5, walk, single, single, single, fielder's choice, single, 4-0 Padres. Bottom 5: single, single, single, single, single, single, single, bases-loaded GIDP, 9-0 Padres. Adrian Gonzalez made the last out of both innings. Slacker. Padres starter Wade LeBlanc contributed three of the 13 singles. He's pitched 17.2 innings in 3 starts with a 0.52 ERA.
Meanwhile, Brian Burres pitched 5.1 scoreless innings to lead the Pirates past the Dodgers, 2-0. The NL!
The Jays were scheduled to face Brett Anderson tonight, but they'll dodge him, as a forearm injury has landed him on the DL. In his place, Trevor Cahill makes his 2010 debut for the A's. Brandon Morrow goes for Toronto. The game is off the odds board, for now. First pitch is 7:07.
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