The Canadian Team - with all the Lefties

Notes on a baseball game from the notepad beside my score card.

Toronto Blue Jays @ Cleveland Indians
Some Insurance Company Field, Cleveland Ohio
Temp: 21 C 70 F Wind: W at 13 km/h
Game 2 of a 3 game set. Jays won last night 5-1

Line ups:

Toronto

1. F Lewis LF
2. A Hill 2B
3. A Lind DH
4. V Wells CF
5. L Overbay 1B
6. A Gonzalez SS
7. J Bautista 3B
8. J Buck C
9. T Snider RF

SP Ricardo Romero(2-1) 2.25 ERA


Cleveland

1. M Grudzielanek 2B
2. G Sizemore CF
3. S Choo RF
4. A Kearns LF
5. J Peralta 3B
6. T Hafner DH
7. R Branyan 1B
8. L Marson C
9. L Valbuena SS

SP Jacob Cauthen Westbrook(0-2) 5.53 ERA


Note 1

I haven't talked much about starting pitching on this years Blue Jays team. Start after start the current starters are keeping the team in games.

• The Jays lead the American League in saves (9) with out a closer [Kevin Gregg (6), Jason Frasor (3) are working out who that will be], meaning they're in almost every game in the late innings.
• The Jays have contested 9 games where the final score was less than a two runs difference 5th in the American League: Baltimore, Boston (11) Kansas City, Chicago (10)
  
• Tonight Buck Martinez mentioned that Blue Jays starters has gone into the seventh inning with a no-hitter going 4!! times this year.
  
• 5 out of the 6 pitchers who have starts this season are left handed!
• 11 of 21 pitchers on the 40-Man Roster are lefties.

The fact that the Jays have a lot of lefties doesn't mean a thing unless they're effective. The strange thing is, they have all looked really good so far.

Every pitcher will have bad outings - but even bad starts haven't been disasters - the battery and the coaches have managed to keep the Jays in those games as well.

Off the top of my head I can only remember a couple of games where the Jays were blown out.

Lets do some research:

April 14, 2010,(SP( Morrow(L) 4.0 IP, 8H, 7R, 7ER, 1BB, 3K, 2HR, 12.0ERA Score: 11-1

April 16, 2010,(SP) Marcum(L) 7.0 IP, 7H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 6K, 1HR, 4.05ERA Score: 7-5

A bad start for Marcum but the Jays are within 3 until Jeremy Accardo (sent down to the minors on April 27th) gives up 3 in the 8th. But then the Jays come right back with 4 in the bottom of the frame.

April 26, 2010,(SP) Eveland(L) 3.0 IP, 8H, 7R, 7ER, 3BB, 3K, 0HR, 4.57ERA Score 13-12

Boston's starter Beckett gave up 8R's before leaving in the 3rd as well; then both teams bullpens battled to see who's team ERA could get the highest in the fewest innings.

That's it - one bad start that lead to a blow out.


Note 2

Ricky Romero is having a alright outing after appearing to be the teams Ace in his past few starts.


Note 3

At Boston Red Sox blog "Joy of Sox" the glossary says, "Seabass: Alex Gonzalez - Coined by Kevin Millar for his (Seabass's) perpetually sullen game-face." I'm watching him as he steps in to the box in the 6th - runners at 3rd and 2nd - Gonzalez takes a deep breath and blows it out - I'm seeing 'Blowfish' because the way his cheeks expand like trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Blowfish slams the ball down the left field line plateing the 6th Blue Jay run of the game, the go ahead run, it's 6-5.


Note 4

Travis Snider has a bad time of it in another right field in these major leagues - he takes a bad path to a ball here in Cleveland. The ball that was hit on a line to the top of the wall in right-centre. I wouldn't have gotten to it - but one more time around the league - and he will.


Note 5

My two favorite underdogs this spring Travis Snider batting 9th (infield single) and Fred Lewis batting leadoff (RBI double), combine for a run in the 7th that ends Rafael E. Perez's night.


Note 6

The Jays have left 11 base runners on to this point - sometimes you have to give the other guys defense some credit - in that case I expect the flood gates to burst before this is over. As I write the 8th run scores on an Lyle Overbay single that scores Fred Lewis. Then releiver A Laffey moves two runners up with a wild pitch.

CF Grady Sizemore ends the inning with a loo-ng run on a Blowfish sure fire double to left-centre.Dam! That looked like it hung up in the westerly wind as the ball reached it's apex (Googled weather + Cleveland at 10:20: W at 8 km/h). That would have been 2R's for sure - and confirmed my formula.


Note 7

Romero had a rocky 3rd and 4th but settled down in the 5th and 6th and allowed the offense to began to win the scoring test.
Ricky Romero (W 3-1) 6.0IP, 9H, 5R, 5ER, 2BB, 9K, 0HR, 105-64, 3.00ERA

The bull pen did not allow a run on 1 hit..
Combined Bullpen: 3.0IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 4K, 0HR, 53-34
Camp (H 0.2), Downs (H 1.1), Gregg (S[7] 1.0)




Thanks to ESPN Box Score for the box score image, the line-ups and all that important stuff.

Thanks to MLB for the 1-run game numbers and the box scores from April.



mh