How nice to see the Jays respond in the 8th inning for 3 runs after ATL had scored 4 in the top half. The 3 runs pushed the Jays lead back to 4 to regain the breathing room they had and took away any momentum the Braves had generated. I think that is a big lift when the offence is able to come right back like that after a late rally from the opposition.
Good start from John Parrish in is return to the majors. He has had a great year in AAA, but his problem has always been his control. Tonight he walked just 2 in 6 innings and if he can keep his command he could at least hold his own in place of Marcum. It sounds like the Jays plan to skip the 5th spot the next couple times so it may be awhile before we see if Parrish can repeat this success.
I don’t get using Downs in the 7th inning when the Jays are up by 5. My only guess was since Cito already had him warming up while the Jays were putting the 4 spot on the board in the bottom of the 6th he decided to just let him come in the game and get some work (he hadn’t worked in 2 days). Based on Cito’s usage of Downs so far my guess is he was going to use him for 2 innings, but since the Jays were up by 5 he just let him get his 1 inning of work in and then pulled him. It almost backfired as Tallet gave up 4 runs in the 8th inning.
Watching Teixera play defence is a real treat. Sure everybody knows about his offence, and boy is he hot right now, but he is in my opinion the best defensive 1B in baseball. He has made several nice plays so far this series and something that really doesn’t get quantified is all the errors he saves his infielders by scooping their throws. Teixera just looks so smooth making all the plays.
Nice to see Lind doing some of the little things. First he picked up a SF in the 6th and then picked up the advance by hitting a ground ball to the right side to move the runner to 3rd w/less than 2 outs in the 8th.
Wells had himself a nice game despite starting 0 for 2, as he then followed it up by hitting a solo HR, got a 1B, and then a 2-run 2B in consecutive innings.
It is interesting to note how much all 3 of OAK’s big 3 have struggled since leaving OAK. These 3 were all supposed to be perennial Cy Young contenders and have not come close since. Mulder and Hudson have both battled injuries and even when healthy haven’t exactly been lighting it up. While Zito has been very mediocre even though he is the highest paid pitcher in baseball (that truly may be the worst contract in baseball; I would never pay any starting pitcher that much).
Let’s check the stats:
Adv: Lind (1)
P-Adv: Acosta
Adv+: Blanco
P-Adv+: Tallet (2)
NAdv: Barajas (3)
P-NAdv: Bennett
ME(r): McCann
ME(f): Ohman
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