Game 138 – The Vulture

The Blue Jays pulled out an improbable win on a night when 2 of the best relievers this season blew a save. First it was Downs who came on to protect a 2-run lead w/2 outs in the 7th but gave up a bases clearing 2B to Mauer. After the Jays tied it in the bottom half and Ryan gave up a run in the top of the 9th it was Joe Nathan’s turn. Nathan walked the leadoff hitter but then got Overbay and Rolen setting up a matchup w/the rookie Snider. The count went full and Snider came up w/a huge 1B to right-centre that was bobbled by Pridie allowing Thigpen to score from 1st, who was on the move w/the pitch. Granted it was an unearned run, but a blown save none the less for Nathan.

That hit for Snider was 1 of 3 on the night, all part of an impressive performance from him. To battle a pitcher like Nathan and come up w/a game tying 2-out 2-strike hit in the 9th is impressive. His late inning heroics didn’t end there though as he came up in the 11th following a leadoff 2B by Rolen and hit a 1B off the tough lefty Guardado. Although it didn’t score Rolen as he was held at third it set up the winning hit by McDonald.

Burnett struggled w/his control in this game throwing 49 balls to 64 strikes. He also walked 4 batters, but did strikeout 8. Burnett’s control issues didn’t come back to haunt him until the 7th. He allowed no runs through 6 and in fact he left the game w/no runs in but he left 3 runners on, 2 of which were on via the BB. As mentioned above all 3 runs ended up scoring.

Jesse Carlson has clearly become the vulture of choice for the Jays this season. He picked up the win for the 2nd straight game, his 6th of the season. The reason Carlson seems to be picking up all these wins is b/c he is a trusted reliever but is not one of the main setup guys. In order to get a vulture win you have to come into either a tie game or your team trailing. Your best relievers, the closer and setup men, (for the Jays, Ryan, Downs, and League) generally only come in to protect a lead. The arms at the bottom of the list usually only come in when your way ahead or way behind meaning there generally are not lead changes. It is those guys in the middle, who you might use in the 6th or 7th w/a lead or if you’re tied or only down by 1 or 2.

I don’t get why Thigpen wasn’t brought in to PR for Zaun as soon as he got on in the 9th. Instead Cito waited until after Overbay flied out to bring him in. Maybe Cito was sleeping. And why was Kevin Mench your PR for Barajas in the 7th. With expanded rosters in September you gotta have someone up whose faster than Mench. Actually they already do have someone on the bench, Brad Wilkerson. Or they could have used Thigpen there and just left him in to catch rather than having to bring in Zaun.

I was surprised to see the Gardenhire bring in a PR for Delmon Young in the 7th after Young doubled. Young has above avg speed and he was PH for Gomez so you could have just left him in to play RF where they ended up putting Pridie. Just b/c you have expanded rosters doesn’t mean you have to try and take every little advantage. How much speed are you actually gaining going from Young to Pridie. Plus it is only the 7th so you would expect the spot in the order may come up in the 9th (not too mention extra innings, but you can’t plan that) and I would rather have Young getting that AB.

As if I didn’t see this coming, the LH Pridie comes up to bat against Downs in the 8th. Now wouldn’t it nice to have a RH bat up there like say Delmon Young, oh wait. Since that was not an option I still would have been pinch hitting for Pridie. Pridie did end up drawing a walk.

It was a little curious as to why Gardenhire brought in Reyes to face Inglett in the 7th only to have him intentionally walk Bautista once he came in to PH. Reyes was then pulled from the game to bring in a RH. Gardenhire had to know the Jays might PH for Inglett if he brought in a lefty. So if you plan on bringing in a righty for Scutaro anyways why not just have Blackburn issue the intentional walk to Inglett and then go the RH reliever. All he accomplished was having the Jays remove Inglett from the game, but it cost him one of his relievers.

The Twins got a couple of infield 1B’s this game that I think weren’t played all that well by the Jays. In the 1st Morneau hit a slow roller down the 3rd base line and Rolen charged picked it up and didn’t throw. I had no complaints w/him holding onto the ball b/c he had no shot at getting Morneau, but for that reason why not let the ball go. I can’t say positively that the ball would have rolled foul but I think it had a chance. In the 9th inning Harris hit a ground ball to Scutaro that I thought Scutaro set back on, I’m guessing to try and get a better hop. As a result Harris beat it out and it scored the go ahead run. There were 2 outs so had Scutaro charged that ball a little more he may have got Harris and kept the Twins from scoring.

Neither team impressed w/RISP as the Jays were just 2 for 10 and the Twins 2 for 13. The Jays stranded a 1-out 3B from Rios in the 10th while the Twins stranded a leadoff 3B from Tolbert in the 5th.

Let’s get to the stats:
Adv+: Snider (1)
P-Adv+: Guardado
WG: Rolen (11)
ME(f): Scutaro (3)