The Blue Jays look to guarantee a series win this afternoon in Cleveland as Mark Buehrle toes the rubber against Corey Kluber of the Indians. The 28-year-old right hander put together a solid 2.7 WAR season in 2013 on the back of low walk totals and a 45% groundball rate. On the heels of struggling to get solid contact against Justin Masterson yesterday, the Blue Jays will get another shot at a pitcher who relies heavily on their sinker to get outs. Kluber throws his sinker about 50% of the time along with a cutter and slider, plus a changeup against left-handed batters. His hard stuff hovers in the low-90's, although his slider/curveball (depending on who you listen to) is by far his best pitch.

Here's the movement on his pitches and you can decide whether he has a cutter and slider or a slider and a curveball:

via FanGraphs

It feels like a great Saturday morning for some GIFs:

Here's Kluber's slider/curveball/nasty striking out Kelly Johnson, which isn't that hard to be fair:

via www.fangraphs.com

Here's the sinker that he throws a lot:

via cdn.fangraphs.com

Hopeful Actual Lineup

I'm pretty pleased the lineups are already out because it's getting hard to know who's on the team anymore (although this isn't a bad lineup):

Today's lineup in Cleveland. (1:05pmET) Welcome back @lamelaza_7 ! pic.twitter.com/dlKLvOTlOq

— Blue Jays-Official (@BlueJays) April 19, 2014

#lovethisteam:

#BlueJays bullpen is a bit of a mess today. Santos, Cecil, Delabar, Wagner, Redmond not available unless it's an emergency.

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) April 19, 2014

That leaves Happ, Rogers and Loup as the only relatively fresh arms out of the bullpen. #BlueJays

— Gregor Chisholm (@gregorMLB) April 19, 2014

Find The Link

Find the link between Corey Kluber and the Arizona Diamondbacks 29-year-old utility infielder

Enjoy the game this afternoon, Corey Kluber is pretty underrated so it should be a fun one to watch.

There wasn't much to cheer about in Cleveland today

Game 17: Blue Jays 5, Indians 0

Records: Toronto 10-8, Cleveland 7-10

Box Score

Abysmal offense and sub-par pitching conspired to drop the Indians to three games under .500. Mark Buehrle pitched a gem, dominating the Tribe as he has so often in the past, and propelling the Blue Jays to a shutout and the series win. Corey Kluber was on his way to turning in another solid outing, but got knocked out before he could finish the 7th, giving up five runs in 6 and 2/3 innings. Kluber's defense did him no favors, though, playing a large role in putting the Indians down 3-0 by the 2nd inning. Playing from behind early, the Indians showed little will to fight back, grounding into two double plays and generally exhibiting poor approach at the plate throughout the game. From the announcers to the fans to the players, no one on Cleveland's side seemed to have their heart on this one.

The first inning started off in circus fashion. With one out Melky Cabrera flied to deep RF, and David Murphy missed the catch by inches. It was a hard-hit ball, resulting in a triple, but Murphy got to it in time and arguably should have made the catch. Cabrera would be driven in by a 100 foot Jose Bautista pop-up in the dead zone of shallow RF, which Nick Swisher also probably should have caught. Advancing on a ludicrous passed ball from Yan Gomes (it was fastball over the heart of the plate), Bautista scored on the first legit hit of the inning, a single by Dionner Navarro. Kluber gave up another run on a Jose Reyes single in the 2nd, but things went quiet on defense for a while after that. Kluber settled in nicely until the 7th, when the Jays would add two more on a Dionner Navarro single, knocking Klubot out of the game.

Unfortunately, things were also quiet on the offensive end. Asdrubal Cabrera lead off the game with a single, but the Indians managed to put together only three more hits against a sparkling Buehrle. No Indians player advanced beyond second base in the first 7 innings. The Tribe's best chances were dashed by double play groundouts from Carlos Santana in the 2nd and Asdrubal Cabrera in the 5th. Buehrle was pulled after allowing a single and a walk to start the Indians 8th, leaving with a line of 7IP, 0ER, 3BB, and 3K. He was replaced by LGFT Esmil Rogers, who promptly retired the Tribe on two ugly K's from Asdrubal Cabrera and Nick Swisher and a pop fly by Nick Swisher. Rogers finished out the game for the Jay, striking out two more in the Tribe 9th.

I feel like a bit of a broken record when I say Nick Swisher was once again completely clueless at the plate, going 0-4 with a two K's. He wasn't the only one, though. The Tribe hit almost nothing hard, as Buehrle succeeded masterfully in inducing week contact. Games like these make it difficult to tell if the hitting was really bad or the pitching was really good, but given the way Buehrle has killed us in the past, I'm inclined to tip my cap to him and move on. On the positive side, the Indians bullpen pitched a nice 2 and 1/3 innings, with Mark Rzepczynski cleaning up Kluber's leftovers and Blake Wood striking out two in a 1-2-3 Jays 9th.

It feels a bit like wasted Saturday afternoon, perhaps, but there's nothing we can do but put our heads down, grind, and hope we can salvage the last game of the series tomorrow.

Win expectancy chart

Source: FanGraphs

Roll call

Game thread

Comments: 114

Commenters: 16

Tomorrow's game

Blue Jays (Brandon Morrow, RHP) @ Indians (Carlos Carrasco, RHP)

1:05 p.m. ET (STO, WTAM)

News about the Indians and the AL Central

Yesterday's Game

Indians vs. Blue Jays recap (Saturday): Buehrle dominant as Jays shut Tribe out 5-0 - Let's Go Tribe

Toronto Blue Jays at Cleveland Indians - April 19, 2014 | MLB.com CLE Recap

Cleveland Indians searching for answers after 5-0 loss to Blue Jays drops them to 7-10 | cleveland.com

It looked like Mark Buerhle turned the clock back to his days with the White Sox. And in this case, at least from the Indians' perspective, the past was definitively not something they wanted to revisit. But beyond what Buerhle did, defensive plays not made and the law of RISP averages catching up to the club contributed to the team's seventh loss in 9 games.

And it's not like they've been playing a particularly brutal schedule. They've lost series to Minnesota, Chicago, and now Toronto, clubs that were among the AL's worst a year ago. Now teams can change drastically from year to year, but with the possible exception of Toronto, who underachieved last year, I don't see any of those three clubs contending for the playoffs this year.

The good news is that no one's gotten hot in the AL Central, and it's only April 20th. With a couple good weeks to close April, the Indians will finish above .500 for the month, and will still be in decent shape. But the underlying problems (starting pitching, defense, offense) that have plagued the team early will need to be corrected.

Indians News

Terry Francona wants Yan Gomes to remain aggressive behind the plate, despite early-season miscues: Cleveland Indians chatter | cleveland.com

In a couple instances, some Yan Gomes throws have cost the Indians crucial runs. Some of those throws were unnecessary, as in the attempted pickoff from Friday's game. Still, Gomes' caught stealing percentage is well above the league average, and you want other players to know in the back of their mind that Gomes will throw to any base at any point. That knowledge may prevent big leagues, and stop steal attempts before they even start.

Francona: Giambi will be activated Monday | indians.com: News

The Indians have been extremely patient with Jason Giambi's rehab, and part of the reason for that is the difficult 25-man roster decision that awaits them when they activate Giambi from the Disabled List. Before the season the easy answer (at least from their perspective) would be to option Lonnie Chisenhall to Columbus. But Chisenhall has been one of the clubs' best hitters in this early season, and it's almost a guarantee that the offense will suffer should Chisenhall be optioned. And as much as I'd like for Elliot Johnson to be the one to go, the Indians cannot manage with just position players on the bench who can play the field.

So I think either C.C. Lee or Blake Wood will be the ones sent down when Giambi is activated tomorrow. It may pain Francona to have "only" seven relievers in the bullpen, but I don't think there's any other option.

Current 25-man/40-man Roster

(click to embiggen)

If no one goes on the Disabled List between now and Monday, then the Indians will be in the peculiar situation of having no one on the either the 15-Day of 60-Day Disabled List. That's a good thing. Having everyone available on your roster is a luxury few teams have for very long.

Jason Giambi will be make his 2014 debut early this week, but I'm already thinking of replacing him on the roster. Although Giambi's presence in the clubhouse is something that is always brought up by Francona and the players, with Lonnie Chisenhall, a left-handed hitter, off to a great start, that leaves Giambi's role as a pinch-hitter and occasional DH on days when Carlos Santana is behind the plate. And there's also Ryan Raburn on the bench, who if you haven't noticed, hasn't gotten much playing time either.

I think eventually the Indians are going to have to bring up a true backup catcher once they are convinced that Carlos Santana can be an everyday third baseman. Not having to worry about catching a couple times a week should help Santana's play, and allow the Indians to actually rest him occasionally, or perhaps stick him at DH from time to time. If Roberto Perez, who is an outstanding defensive catcher, continues to rake in AAA, it will be tempting to solve a couple roster problems at once by bringing him up to be Gomes' backup. But that would mean saying goodbye to Jason Giambi as a player, and that's something the Indians don't  want to have to do now.

AL Central News

Strains, Tears, and the DL - Royals Review

Interesting background on why muscle strains and tears happen and the difference between the grades of muscle strains.

Adam Eaton flirts with death, then strains hamstring - South Side Sox

Speaking of strains, Adam Eaton strained his hamstring last night, and will be out a couple days.

Jason Bartlett Informs Twins He Plans To Retire - Twinkie Town

Bartlett, who re-signed with his original team this winter, is hanging it up.

Drew Smyly battles, gets rocked in first start - Bless You Boys

Smyly, even though he began the year in the Detroit, made his first start of the year Friday night against the Angels.

This Week's Video Clip

Let's just say that it's a good thing that Bartolo Colon is a heck of a pitcher.

The Indians bats came through when it mattered , thanks to a David Murphy double in the sixth inning, and John Axford managed to close things out for a 6-4 win over the Jays.

Game 18: Indians 6, Blue Jays 4

Sunday afternoon's contest between the Indians and Jays at Progressive Field was probably Carlos Carrasco's final audition to prove he belongs in the Tribe's rotation. In the end, Carrasco wasn't terrible but he wasn't very good either, and thankfully it was the Indians offense that came to his rescue. Michael Brantley and David Murphy came through in pivotal moments to guide the Indians to a much-needed 6-4 victory over the Blue Jays, winning the final game of this three-game series.

Carrasco, making his third start of the season, lasted 5.2 innings and gave up 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks and recorded 5 strikeouts.Those aren't impressive numbers by any means but they don't quite tell the whole story either. Carlos breezed through the first three innings without allowing the Jays anything; he was damn near perfect. Unfortunately he completely lost his momentum when Jose Reyes doubled to begin the fourth inning and it all unraveled from there. Carrasco was actually very unlucky though. On the next play, Melky Cabrera hit a groundball to short that Asdrubal Cabrera got some leather on but not enough to make the out. Now if the Indians had a shortstop with some range, someone who could play league-average defense, I feel the rest of the inning could have gone very differently for Carrasco. Instead Carrasco was stung for 3 runs and never regained that confidence he had in the first three innings. He battled his way into the sixth inning but control issues were starting to take their toll and Francona removed him for Josh Outman (who went on to record the win). If it was up to me I'd let Carrasco have one more start in the rotation, because for the majority of the game I thought he looked pretty decent.

Instead of rolling over and letting their starting pitcher take the loss, the Indians offense decided to break from recent tradition and got themselves back into contention.

Michael Brantley had a terrific day at the plate, collecting 2 hits and a walk. His first hit was a solo home run to right field that got things going in the second inning and put the Indians ahead 1-0. He collected another RBI in the bottom of the fourth inning, when his double scored Jason Kipnis to keep the Indians in the game. Brantley now leads the team in home runs and RBI and is fast becoming my favorite position player on the team.

It was David Murphy however, who proved to be the Indians' hero in the end. He came to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded, with the Jays leading 4-2. Toronto reliever Aaron Loup was in the midst of a horrific inning, as he walked three Indians batters in a row to set the stage for Murphy. Our 6'3 right-fielder, who has gotten off to such a terrific start to his career in Cleveland, lined Loup's 0-1 pitch into left field for a bases-clearing double to give the Tribe a 5-4 lead.

The hometown team never looked back. They added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Nick Swisher hit a sac-fly to score Lonnie Chisenhall to push the lead to 6-4. Cody Allen cruised through the eighth inning, and John Axford pitched the ninth to record his 6th save of the year, but not before making us sweat. Axford walked a tightrope of disaster, loading the bases for the Jays before Edwin Encarnacion grounded into the Indians' defensive shift for the final out. If Jason Kipnis hadn't been positioned just behind the second base bag, Encarnacion's hit would have surely gone into center field to tie the game. Instead it was a routine groundout and the Tribe celebrated their first win since Wednesday 16th in Detroit.

Cleveland now sit at 8-10 and welcome the Kansas City Royals into town to begin a four-game series tomorrow. Zach McAllister will take the mound and he faces off against KC's Jeremy Guthrie. First pitch is at 7:05 ET.

Box Score

Win-expectancy chart:

Source: FanGraphs

Roll Call:

Game Thread

Total comments: 194

Total commenters: 21

A lot has been made of how overworked the Blue Jays bullpen is, especially after a couple of blowups in the past week. Aaron Loup had a bad time of it yesterday, and all I had in my twitter feed was how overworked Loup was. That got me looking at Loup's use. Before yesterday, he last use was Thursday, when he threw 19 pitches (and many of us were thinking he should have been allowed to throw more). I didn't really see that as overuse.

I always thought Gibby was pretty good at using his bullpen, making sure guys got work, and sharing it out well, but let's take a look at how the early season is going. The top row is the date, from March 31 to April 20, we had the, terrible, doubleheader on the 17:

Aaron Loup seems to be a favorite of Gibby's, and it's easy to see why, a 2.73 career ERA and, pretty much has a rubber arm. He's only pitched on consecutive days once, and that was only 27 combined pitches. The most pitches he's thrown is 29, yesterday, and that was because of the 3 walks. He's been in 8 of 19 games, which would work out to 68 on the season, a healthy number but not nuts and, at the rate he's going, he'd have around 74 innings. I don't really think he's been overworked.

Brett Cecil has pitched n consecutive days twice and he's pitched in 4 of the past 6 days, but he's topped out at 20 pitches. He's been in 9 of 19 games, which would be 77 games, if he continued just like this and would be about 68 innings. Gibby seems to be trying to use him as a LOOGY most of the time.

Steve Delabar has been in 9 game too, He's pitched on consecutive days twice. He's topped out at 20 pitches too. He's had a couple of days off after the consecutive days both times. I don't think he's been worked overly hard, but then with his arm history, gentler might be better. He's been in 9 of 19, for 6.1 innings, which would be 77 games and 54 innings.

Sergio Santos has pitched in 8 games, he's thrown over 20 pitches 3 times (but then if he'd throw strikes.....). He's had 1 four out save, and, of course, his blowup game would have been a 5 out save. I don't really think he's been overused. 8 games, 6.1 innings (just like Delabar), would be 68 games and 54 innings.

Neil Wagner has a case for being overworked. He's pitched 4 times in the last 6 days. He threw 36 pitches over 2 innings in his first outing, when he was called up.  He's been in 6 games since coming up from Buffalo.

Esmil Rogers has thrown a lot. He's been in 7 games but leads the bullpen with 10.1 innings. He's never pitched more than 2 innings in a game, but has gone 2 innings 3 times. 2 innings can be a lot of pitches if you aren't throwing strikes.

Todd Redmond has been the 'leave him out there until his arm falls off' guy. He's pitched in 5 games, and has throw 68, 59 and 39 pitches. He's pitched over 3 innings 3 times. He's only allowed 1 earned run, but, of course, that was in extra innings, so he is 0-1 on the season with a 0.68 ERA. 13.1 innings would work out to about 114 innings on the season. He's been terrific as the mop up guy, just 4 walks with 11 strikeouts. Hopefully we won't need a mop up man so much in the future.

J.A. Happ isn't overworked and none of us would really care if he was.  It looks to me like Happ is Gibby's 'pitcher of last resort' in the pen.

So, I don't really see any particular pitcher that is overworked, Gibby's been good at balancing out the load, which isn't all that easy to do with 8 guys in the pen. As a group, yeah you'd like to see them throw fewer innings. I'd like to think that the starters will go deeper into games as the season goes on. We do have a rotation built around 3 guys that are coming off injuries. There really isn't much sense in having them go 120 pitches, just to test out how successful their surgeries were.

The Jays starters are off to a good start in 2014, but do they have a fatal flaw?

Just a hair away from 20 games into the season, it's easy to feel like we know something about the 2014 Blue Jays while remaining confident that we can't exactly trust what we're seeing.

Edwin Encarnacion will hit a home run. Brett Lawrie will find himself on the right side of the Mendoza line. On a sadder note, Mark Buehrle's ERA will skyrocket until it no longer begins with a 0.

Although a great deal of the numbers for the 2014 Blue Jays can be dismissed as small sample size nonsense, we are starting to learn something about this team. One thing that is apparent is that the rotation may well be better than expected. Along with Buehrle's mastery, the Jays have gotten strong performances from Drew Hutchison, encouraging outings from Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan's arm remains firmly attached to the rest of his body. The less said about R.A. Dickey at this juncture the better. The table below shows how Jays starters have fared compared to the rest of the league in a few basic categories:

There are some red flags here, the walks and the xFIP are pretty ugly, but overall the Blue Jays rank in the top half of the league in most categories. When the starters spend more time at the Rogers Centre it will become clear whether or not they can continue to suppress home runs, but for now their 3.57 FIP and 3.82 ERA earn them the benefit of the doubt.

While there are many to reasons to be encouraged, there is one hurdle that this staff may struggle with going forward. That hurdle is getting out left-handed batters.

This problem occurred to me when Dustin McGowan started the home opener against a Yankees lineup stacked with left-handed bats. At the time I thought that the Yanks were going to be a tricky matchup for McGowan, a right handed pitcher that leans heavily on his slider. Seeing as sliders have notoriously high platoon splits, pitchers who use them as their primary breaking ball can struggle against opposite-handed batters.

That thought got me pondering the other right-handers in the Blue Jays rotation, three of whom feature a slider-heavy attack. Brandon Morrow, Drew Hutchison and Dustin McGowan have all thrown sliders between 19.9% and 22.7% of time this year. None of them have a curveball they really feature, and only Morrow uses his changeup more than 15% of the time. In theory, a knuckleball should be platoon neutral, or even have reverse splits, but Dickey had a very difficult time with left-handers last season and hasn't improved in that area so far this year.

The following table shows the performance of the Jays starting rotation against left-handed batters in 2014:

These numbers are undoubtedly bad, but they technically speaking could be worse. That's because they include the work of crafty lefty incarnate Mark Buehrle. When Buehrle's efforts are removed, the chart below shows how the four right-handers have faced against batters attacking them from the left side.

This is troubling stuff. The question is whether it will continue. To find that out one must dive into each right hander's track record against lefties.

R.A Dickey

Dickey's career has been such a winding road that his career stats mean virtually nothing at this point, but it is worth noting that he's always struggled with lefty bats, especially when it comes to keeping the ball in the yard. He'll probably improve on what he's done so far, but given he's been so poor in every facet of pitching so far this year that sentence could apply to virtually anything...

Drew Hutchison

Hutchison's numbers here are perfectly respectable. The problem is that his big-league career has spanned so few innings that we know nothing definitive about what to expect from his splits going forward.

Brandon Morrow

Morrow put up some scary numbers in 2013, but both 2013 and 2014 are minute samples in the context of his career. The right-hander has survived lefties just fine for the most part, which is not surprising given his plus velocity and quality changeup/splitter/split-change.

For reason it is very difficult to get either pitch classification systems or commentators to agree Morrow's third pitch. However, I'll be sure to ask Brandon about it should I ever run into him at the supermarket. Why a supermarket you ask? I have no idea, but it seems strangely appropriate.

Anyway.... long story short Morrow is not a cause for concern.

Dustin McGowan

In a sense McGowan is the opposite of Morrow, he's been OK against left-handers in recent memory, but he has an ugly track record against them in his career. In fact his massive lefty-righty splits had me pegging him as a potential ROOGY going into the season. When a team with a lot of left-handed thump faces McGowan, Blue Jays fans should be nervous. Not that Jays fans need more reasons to be nervous when the 32-year-old is on the hill.

At the end of the day managers are going to put as many left-handed bats in the lineup as possible against virtually any RHP, unless they are Joe Maddon. This isn't a question of what tactic managers will use to attack the Blue Jays. It's a question of what the efficacy of the kind of all-lefty starting nine a team like the Yankees can put out will be against Toronto.

This team has guys like Morrow, and perhaps Hutchison, who can survive an afternoon at a constant platoon disadvantage, but they also have guys like McGowan and Dickey that might get lit up in a situation like that with some consistency.

So far in 2014 left-handed batters have done a number on Blue Jays starters. That will probably continue to a degree given the slider-heavy arsenal that this staff brings to the table. A steady diet of guys like David Ortiz and Chris Davis is likely to hurt this rotation more than it would some others, but it hopefully it won't be enough to cripple it. After all, on every fifth day the Blue Jays can count on an all-world southpaw to give them dominant inning after dominant inning.

Thank God(s) for Mark Buehrle.

A split of a four-game set against the Red Sox kept the O's at .500, but they'll either gain or lose ground by the end of this three-game series in Toronto.

That Red Sox series was grueling, and coming away just 2-2 is a bit unsatisfying considering the walk-off loss, but at least the Orioles still have a .500 record overall. Toronto is always a scary opponent to face, what with their slugging ways against Baltimore's flyball-prone starting pitchers, but the O's have hit their fair share of longballs at the Rogers Centre in the past, too.

Tuesday, 22 April: Miguel Gonzalez @ R.A. Dickey

Gonzalez had a rough beginning to his season, but he put together a decent outing in his last start against the Rays, going only five innings but allowing no runs and striking out six. He allowed a pair of home runs in each of his first two starts, and he'll have to keep the ball on the ground more to be effective: his GB% is currently just 23.9, per FanGraphs (for perspective, the league average is currently 45.8%).

Dickey is a well-known knuckleballing comeback story. He has yet to replicate his success as a Met since joining the Blue Jays, however, posting a mediocre ERA and FIP in 2013 (though adding significant value by throwing so many innings) and getting off to a rough start this season. Unsurprisingly, he throws his knuckleball roughly 90% of the time, though so far this year he's been throwing more fastballs to right-handed batters than in the past.

Maybe hot:Chris Davis (.833 OPS, 18 PA)

Likely not:Steve Lombardozzi (.286 OPS, 14 PA), Brett Lawrie (.243 OPS, 17 PA)

Wednesday, 23 April: Chris Tillman @ Dustin McGowan

Tillman finally gave up more than one earned run in his last start, allowing three in five innings, the second time already this season in which he's faced Boston and hasn't been able to pitch into the sixth. Hopefully, his high pitch count (122) in that start doesn't limit his effectiveness going forward, and the four walks he issued are just because Boston's lineup is horrifically patient.

McGowan spent 2013 in Toronto's bullpen, but he's back to a starting role this season, and held the Orioles scoreless over 6.1 innings back on the 11th. His other two starts haven't been so successful, as he's surrendered seven runs over 6.2 combined innings. McGowan has pretty different approaches depending on batter handedness. Against lefties, he throws a mix of four- and two-seam fastballs, adding a changeup about 17% of the time and his slider when he's ahead in the count or has two strikes. Versus righties, he uses his four-seam fastball for about half of his pitches, turning only occasionally to his sinker, and using his slider very frequently as long as the batter isn't ahead.

Maybe hot:Colby Rasmus (1.176 OPS, 17 PA)

Likely not:Delmon Young (.369 OPS, 17 PA)

Thursday, 24 April: Bud Norris @ Drew Hutchison

Norris has had one good game, one okay one, and one poor one to start 2014. It probably doesn't mean anything, but perhaps we can take some small comfort in that his good start was seven scoreless innings against Toronto back on the 12th. His peripherals are significantly better than his ERA at the moment, and he's the only starter for Baltimore to post a groundball rate north of 40% so far. It's better than I expected coming into the year, and if Norris can continue to pitch more like a solid #4 starter than a fringy #5, I'll be quite happy.

Hutchison lost part of 2012 and most of 2013 to Tommy John surgery, not seeing any time in the majors last year. He's put up some solid numbers since his return, in particular an outstanding strikeout rate of 27.6% (league-average: 20.9%), and held the Orioles scoreless over six innings when squaring off against Norris earlier in the month. The righty throws four-seam fastballs a little over half of the time to all hitters, adding the occasional two-seamer. Against righties, he'll also turn to his slider in all counts, while against lefties, he saves it for when he's ahead in the count or has two strikes, mixing in changeups instead in other counts.

After an off-day on Monday, the Blue Jays welcome Buck Showalter and his Baltimore Orioles to the Rogers Centre for a three-game midweek series. R.A. Dickey goes up against Mexican right hander Miguel Gonzalez tonight in a battle of pitchers who haven't gotten off to the greatest of starts this year. Gonzalez has made three starts, against Detroit, New York, and Tampa Bay, surrendering 10 earned runs in 14.1 innings along with five walks. His line isn't as bad as it looks mind you, as he pitched five scoreless innings against the Rays in his last start.

The 29-year-old Gonzalez throws a four-seamer, sinker, slider, curveball, and splitter all fairly regularly although his fastballs are thrown nearly 70% of the time. He pounds the zone low and away when facing up against right-handers, which is never a great match-up for the Blue Jays sluggers:

Gonzalez's splitter actually has a ton of movement on it, but he should avoid throwing it to right-handed batters because even Rajai Davis can do this with it:

The splitter looks to be a big reason why Gonzalez is basically split neutral, as lefties have a really tough time making contact against it (36% whiff/swing).

Hopeful Lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista RF
4. Edwin Encarnacion 1B
5. Colby Rasmus CF
6. Brett Lawrie 3B
7. Juan Francisco DH
8. Josh Thole C
9. Ryan Goins 2B

Find The Link

The Padres right-hander will undergo the daring procedure for the second time.

San Diego Padres right-hander Josh Johnson is set to go under the knife once again, as he will reportedly undergo Tommy John surgery tomorrow, according to Corey Brock of MLB.com. The procedure will be performed by Dr. James Andrews, and should sideline Johnson until mid-2015.

Johnson, who joined the Padres as a free agent this winter, suffered a strained flexor muscle in Spring Training that has prevented him from pitching this season. As part of the deal Johnson signed with San Diego in November, the Padres now hold a $4 million club option for 2015 due to a clause that would be triggered were Johnson to start fewer than seven games (he has zero) in 2014.

Johnson, 30, was atrocious for the Blue Jays last year (6.20 ERA in 81.1 innings, though his FIP was somewhat better at 4.62), but as recently as a year ago, Johnson was considered one of the game's best pitchers. From 2008-2012, Johnson posted a 3.06 ERA, 136 ERA+, 2.99 FIP, 8.3 K/9, and 21.9 for the Florida/Miami Marlins. Unfortunately, Johnson's frequent injuries have sidelined him for great periods of time (he has topped 100 innings just four times since 2006), including a prior Tommy John surgery in 2007. Johnson also underwent an operation to have a bone spur removed from his elbow in October.

The Padres' rotation has gotten along just fine without Johnson and fellow Tommy John victim Cory Luebke. The staff currently ranks 9th in baseball in rotation ERA (3.12) and 5th in FIP (3.26). The rotation has been anchored by stalwart Andrew Cashner, who has been among the best pitchers in baseball so far this season. The team has also gotten strong performances from Tyson Ross, Ian Kennedy, Eric Stults, and Robbie Erlin.

In a game where the two teams combine for 28 hits, 18 runs and 7 homeruns, Nelson Cruz's grand slam proved to be the difference in the game. Tommy Hunter held on with the bases loaded in the 9th inning.

What a game! The Orioles fell behind early thanks to a six-run 2nd inning by the Blue Jays. The Orioles clawed back with their own 6-run inning in the 5th, featuring the grand slam by Nelson Cruz that changed the entire complexion of the game, bringing the O's from 3 runs behind to 1 run ahead. The O's survived multiple chances by the Blue Jays, especially with bases loaded in the 9th inning, to win the game 10-8.

The O's got off to a good start in the top 1st. After two quick outs, Chris Davis hit monster HR to CF, just the No. 2 of the season for Davis. Hopefully this signals the end of Davis's power slump and Davis can regain his power stroke that produced 53 HR last season. The good start did not last long. In the bottom 2nd, Chris Tillman gave up a total of 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 HBP and 2 HR to hand the Blue Jays a 6-1 lead. Brett Lawrie and Jose Reyes did the heavy damage by hitting a 3-run and 2-run HR respectively. Homeruns were a problem for Tillman last season too, but his ability to limit them to solo shots helped him limit their damage. He wasn't so lucky tonight.

The O's slowly clawed back. In the 3rd inning, Nick Markakis drove in a run after a double by Jonathan Schoop. Then, in a terrible baserunning mistake, Markakis was picked off at 1st with Nelson Cruz at the plate. Markakis is no threat on the bases at all, so it doesn't make sense for him to wander so far off first base. The mistake proved costly when Cruz hit a solo HR after Markakis was picked off.

Luckily for the O's, the run did not change the outcome of the game. The O's had their own six-run inning in the 5th. The bottom of the lineup, Flaherty, Schoop and Lough loaded the bases with a walk, an infield single and a hit-by-pitch. After Markakis's pop out, Nelson Cruz stepped to the plate and hit his second HR to the second deck of the day. After the PED suspension last season, many were doubting Cruz's power numbers in Texas. It is nice to see Cruz proving the doubters, including me, wrong and enjoying his best season offensively so far this year. The inning was not over. After singles by Davis and Adam Jones, Wieters doubled to CF to score Davis. Jones the scored on a sacrifice fly by J.J. Hardy. The Orioles gathered 5 hits, 2 walks, 1 HBP in total in this inning, matching the Blue Jays' output in the 2nd.

The O's and the Blue Jays exchanged solo homeruns in the 6th and 7th. The Blue Jays scored on Ryan Goins's HR, while the O's scored on Matt Wieters's 4th HR of the season. Tillman exited in the sixth inning with 5.2 IP, 9 hits, 2 walk, 1 HBP, 3 HR, 7K. It was a nice recovery for Tillman after that rough 2nd inning. Ryan Webb, Brian Matusz and Darren O'Day all allowed baserunners to reach scoring positions, but the Blue Jays only tacked on a run in the 7th on a RBI single by PH Josh Thole.

Things got interesting in the 9th when Tommy Hunter entered to close the game. After one out, Hunter allowed three straight singles to load the bases. A single would tie the game and a double would win it for the Blue Jays. As he has done so many times before, Hunter survived the scare by inducing a double play from Jonathan Diaz to complete the O's comeback. This is definitely one of the most exciting games the O's have played this season, and the O's climbed back to .500 with the win.

How long do we go with a starter that tires at 60 pitches?

After last night's game, the topic of discussion, for Blue Jays fans, is what to do about Dustin McGowan in the starting rotation? As noted in John Lott's piece in the National Post:

Fatigue starts to strike around the 60-pitch mark, McGowan said.

Obviously, if he's tiring around 60 pitches, he's not the optimum choice for the starting rotation.

The problem is that Jays knew, heading into last offseason, that they needed another starting pitcher, or two, and failed to get one.

Then the plan, going into spring training, was to have J.A. Happ and Esmil Rogers or Todd Redmond fill the last two spots in the rotation. Unfortunately:

• Happ was awful and/or hurt all spring.
• Rogers was, well the polite way to say it is, inconsistent all spring.
• And Redmond was......Redmond.

The team was lucky that Drew Hutchison pitched better than anyone could have hoped. The problem was the last spot in the rotation. Two weeks from the end of spring training they still had no idea who would fill that spot. So they came up with the plan of rushing Dustin into starting rotation shape, but with only a couple of spring starts left, and a pitcher whose arm is attached to his shoulder with used chewing gum, it really seemed like a desperation move.

And, as desperation moves tend to, it hasn't worked out.

So the team has basically piggybacked McGowan and Redmond. The trouble is that, if Redmond was any good, he would have won the starter job in spring training. But he's not, and expecting he'll be good enough to carry his share of the load is overly hopeful.

The team has three choices, at the moment:

1. Give McGowan's spot in the rotation to one of the three 'long men' in the bullpen, Happ, Rogers or Redmond. But if that was a good idea, one of them would have started the season in the rotation.
2. Call up Marcus Stroman. I think this is going to end up being the choice, but I don't think the Jays want to do that, just yet, mostly for reasons of not wanting to start the arbitration clock, which, to me, is silly/stupid. We have an AL East that no team is running away with. We are doing as well as anyone. Adding a decent starter would make us that much better.
3. Continuing along with McGowan and hoping that he can get past this 60 pitch ceiling.

Right now, 3 seems to be the choice. I don't know how much longer we can go like that.

It would be a different thing if the other 4 starters were all getting us 7 or 8 innings a start, but that's not happening. Since it isn't happening, even with the 8-man pen, we kind of have to reserve Redmond for the McGowan starts, which means Redmond will pitch more innings, and more higher leverage innings than any of us want to see. If he keeps having to pitch multiple innings, we are going to have more games like last night.

It would help if Dustin could find his curveball. As Lott says, in 2008, back when McGowan was last a starter:

McGowan threw his curveball 10.3% of the time, according to Brooksbaseball.net. This year the curveball has accounted for 1.2% of his pitches. He has said that so far, he simply has been unable to resurrect it.

Unfortunately, there isn't some magic potion that McGowan can take to suddenly bring the curve back. He's just going to have to keep working at it.

Having McGowan in the rotation really was the 'feel good story' of the start of the season, but it will be May soon. The feel good story is quickly turning into the produce or else story.

Currently, the Blue Jays have a three man bench with the flexibility of a 90-year-old woman the day after climbing Mount Everest. Moises Sierra broke camp with the team this year in large part due to his lack of options and lack of much competition from anyone else for his roster spot. With 21 games now played in the season, it might be time to wonder what on earth the Blue Jays are looking to do with Sierra and the waste of a roster spot he's taking up. The numbers show only a portion of the problem, but he's 2-22 with a walk in nine games, which is bad news any way you slice it. Unless there is an injury to an outfielder, Sierra sits on the bench being blocked by three players who are much better than him. When he does get into a game, like the series in Minnesota due to Colby Rasmus' injury, he looks lost at the plate and awkward in every other facet of the game:

via BlueJayHunter

When you start to look at what Sierra has done for the team, you start to wonder if the writing is on the wall and it's only a matter of time before the team tries to sneak him (probably unsuccessful) through waivers. If you need a fourth outfielder who can't hit, why not add the speed of Anthony Gose? In late game situations, Sierra has provided no benefit to the Blue Jays, which wouldn't be the case with the pinch running ability of Gose. He is also a superior defender who could come into the game defensively if Melky Cabrera started to look a little rugged out there.

In Buffalo, Gose is still striking out over 25% of the time, but his walk rate is up (SSS) and he's getting on base (.361 OBP) and making things happen. With Gose already on the 40-man it's getting hard to justify Sierra taking up the roster spot over the "future" centre fielder of the Blue Jays assuming Colby Rasmus leaves this offseason. If Alex Anthopoulos and friends aren't going to give Sierra a chance to show he's a worthy fourth outfielder, then they should have kept Gose with the team when he flew all the way to Minnesota for one game and tried to get Sierra through waivers.

Considering all that the front office has said about fielding the best team regardless of options, it's pretty clear that Sierra's lack of options is the only thing the Blue Jays are concerned with when making this decision. The Dominican native likely has a future of being a fringe fourth outfielder, but on this team he is providing no benefit and reducing John Gibbons options even further when making in-game changes.

What say you Banterers, #freeGose?

(Thanks to MookieG for making my title better)

The Orioles and Blue Jays play the rubber game of a home run-filled three-game set on Thursday night. The scheduled starters are Bud Norris for the O's and Drew Hutchison for Toronto.

Pitchers

RHP Drew Hutchison, Toronto
2014: 4 GS, 20 IP, 3.60 ERA, 24 SO, 8 BB, .269 BAA, 1.45 WHIP
Last start (at Indians): 5.1 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO

Just two starts ago, Hutchison faced the Orioles and blanked them for six innings, walking two while striking out five. The offenses have been in high gear in Toronto so far in this series. The O's have to hope they can do better against Hutchison the second time around, or at least chase him early and have some more fun against the Blue Jays bullpen. Well, maybe?

Through four starts this season, he's experiencing both some good fortune and bad fortune. The good fortune is that he's striking out over a batter per inning, and he's probably not that kind of pitcher. The bad fortune is that batters have a .365 batting average on balls in play against him, which is high and probably due to come down. None of which will necessarily happen Thursday night.

RHP Bud Norris, Orioles
2014: 3 GS, 18.1 IP, 4.42 ERA, 13 SO, 5 BB, 1.309 WHIP
Last start (at Red Sox): 6.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO

As you might expect given that they're both starting today, Norris was the pitcher facing off against Hutchison in the start mentioned above. Norris also blanked the Blue Jays in the time that he was in the game, giving up only five hits in seven innings. Bullpen shenanigans abounded before the Orioles went on to win the game in extra innings.

Norris is a fly ball pitcher and we've seen what's been happening to the ball in this series. Good luck, Bud. You're probably going to need it.

Lineups

Orioles (w/ career stats against Hutchison)

In the 56 combined plate appearances against Hutchison, the Orioles hitters are batting .180/.250/.200. That sucks, but it's only 56 plate appearances across all players, so don't panic, at least not until they start sucking against Hutchison tonight too.

Blue Jays (w/ career stats against Norris)

Jays hitters combine for a bit more time against Norris, a total of 106 plate appearances, and they have enjoyed a lot more success, batting .301/.387/.419. Only two of their hits are home runs, but Norris has issued 13 walks against 15 strikeouts to these hitters, and as you may have noticed, there have been a lot of home runs in the series.

That is a lot of lefties, and you know how Norris is against lefties. If you don't know, it isn't good.

Hello, Kenny.

Welcome to the Minnesota Twins, Kenny Wilson - if that is your real name. Which it isn't. Because it's Kenneth. Welcome to Minnesota, Kenneth.

When Jason Bartlett retired last week, the Twins had hoped his paperwork would go through and clear a space on the 40-man roster for Sam Fuld. Instead, the holiday weekend got in the way, the team had to designate Darin Mastroianni for assignment, and when the Blue Jays claimed him they had to designate their own player for assignment. That player was Kenny Wilson.

In Wilson, the Twins pick up a 24-year old Double-A outfielder. A second-round pick by Toronto in the 2008 draft, Wilson was and is still a speedster and true center fielder. The system has needed some center field depth, and this acquisition certainly fits that bill. It does not, however, seemingly do anything to improve the Major League roster. I can only assume that positional depth was such an issue that it was worth that 40th roster spot.

A high school pick out of Florida, Wilson has been a very slow mover through the Blue Jay system - seemingly getting promotions due to time served and age more than performance. He spent 55 games in Double-A last season and started there again this year, but has hit just .210/.239/.306 in 68 plate appearances. His speed, which looks like his greatest asset, helped him average 32 stolen bases over his first six years in professional ball. He's stolen two bases so far this spring.

Wilson is a project. If he pays dividends for the Twins, it won't be this season.

The Orioles poured on the runs against the Blue Jays bullpen to lock up the series and a winning road trip.

The Orioles sent Bud Norris to the mound tonight looking for a win to clinch not only the series, but a winning trip on this seven-game road trip. Things looked bleak at first as the offense was stifled early, but the bats broke out eventually, pouring on nine runs in the seventh and eighth innings to cruise to an 11-4 win. The win puts the Orioles at 11-10 on the year, which is good enough for second place in the A.L. East. They completed the gauntlet of 16 straight A.L. East games and came out on the other side with nine wins, six losses, and one rain out. It's been stressful, but that's pretty freaking great.

Coming into tonight, Bud Norris was coming off of two solid starts, and it looked early like that streak wouldn't go any further. He walked Melky Cabrera in the first inning and when Edwin Encarnacion doubled with two outs, Bud was saved a run by a great play from David Lough to J.J. Hardy to Matt Wieters. Hardy's throw was right on the money. I am so glad to have him back.

After a shaky first inning, Norris was worse in the second. He gave up a lead off home run to Dioner Navarro and a two-run homer to Colby Rasmus, putting the Orioles into a 3-0 hole. After that, though, it was like a switch flipped. He needed just six pitches to get out of the third inning thanks to an inning-ending double play, and pitched a 1-2-3 fourth and fifth. There was a moment of concern in the fourth inning when he pulled up a little after a pitch, sending Buck Showalter and Richie Bancells out to the mound to check on him. He threw a few practice pitches and declared himself OK. It appeared his leg was giving him trouble, but if he was hurting much, he didn't let it show.

The Blue Jays got their first base runner in three innings in the sixth when Norris hit Encarnacion with a pitch. Encarnacion glared out at Bud and acted like a big scary man, but But ignored him and retired Dioner Navarro to end the inning.

At that point it looked like Norris was going to be screwed over by his offense just has he had been the last time he faced the Blue Jays. The score was 3-2, with both runs scoring in the fifth inning. Jonathan Schoop led of the inning with a solo homer, then David Lough got busy on the base paths. He walked, stole second, moved to third on a gutsy tag up, and came in to score on an opposite field single by Chris Davis. But other than that, Blue Jays starter Drew Hutchison had perplexed the O's. In innings 1-4 he allowed just four hits. Three of them were doubles, but the Orioles couldn't do anything with them. Lough should have scored on Nelson Cruz's double in the third inning, but the ball bounced off of the turf and into the stands, forcing him to stay at third base.

Hutchison was replaced by Neil Wagner in the seventh inning, and the Orioles were happy to see him go. With one out, Lough doubled (his second of three hits on the day), and Wagner was replaced by Brett Cecil. No, not Brett Cecil! Having obviously heard about that time that Mark Brown macked on his sister at Pickles Pub, Cecil has made it his life's work to dominate the Orioles, holding them to a .233/.286/.291 hitting line over 16 career games. But on this night, it was the Orioles that dominated him.

Cecil walked Nick Markakis on four pitches, and after Nick and Lough executed a double steal that didn't even draw a throw, the Blue Jays opted to intentionally walk Nelson Cruz to set up the double play. They had walked Cruz intentionally ahead of Chris Davis earlier in the series with good results, but not this time. Davis put on an great display of hitting, doing just enough to give the Orioles the lead. The Jays employed a shift on Davis, leaving just one infielder on the left side. Against the tough lefty, Davis didn't try to launch a grand slam. Instead, he smacked a ground ball to the left side that just got past the lone Blue Jay left to defend half of the infield. Lough and Markakis scored to give the Orioles a 4-3 lead. Well done, Chris Davis!

And they weren't done, either. Adam Jones doubled over Colby Rasmus' head in center field to knock in one more run, and after Cecil was pulled from the game in favor of Esmil Rogers, Wieters also went the other way, blooping a single into left field to make it a five-run inning for the Orioles. Bravo!

Norris had finished the sixth inning on a roll and was at just 86 pitches, but with a sore hamstring, a long sit on the bench, and now a four-run lead, that was it for him. It was another good game from Bud Norris, a fact that I find surprising but delightful.

Norris' replacement, Zach Britton, pitched a quick bottom of the seventh, and then the offense was back for more. They added four more runs in the eighth inning, courtesy of a hit by pitch (that may have been a foul ball to Schoop, but I'll take it) and four singles. The put the game into laugher territory, so with two outs in the eighth, Showalter turned to garbage-time pitcher Josh Stinson. He did allow Britton's run to come in, but then pitched a perfect ninth to close out the game.

What a game. I love it! After putting up a stinker in the first game of the series, the offense came back with a vengeance, scoring 21 runs over the last two days. If they can keep that up, who cares about the pitching? (this is tongue in cheek, friends)

Tomorrow the Orioles will be back home against the Kansas City Royals. Game time is 7:05 and Ubaldo Jimenez will face off against Yordano Ventura.

Orioles 11 Blue Jays 4

It's going to be a short recap, because the night took a surprising turn to the bar and, it's late and I've had a couple.

Anyway, it was Brett Cecil's turn to blow up tonight. It seems like each guy in the bullpen is taking a turn at a blow up and Cecil has been so amazing this year, that well he deserves a turn at being lousy.

Brett cam into the game with the Jays up by a run and a runner on second. He's been so good that I just figured he was going to get out of it. But....Cecil walked his first batter and then, after a double steal, he intentionally walked Nelson Cruz. I'm not a big fan of the intentional walk and walking someone in front of Chris Davis seems especially dumb. Davis doubled, going the other way with the pitch to beat the shift. 2 runs score and suddenly we are behind. Adam Jones was next up and he doubled, and another run scored. Out comes Cecil, and in comes Esmil Rogers. He gives up a single, 2 more runs score, to make a total of 4 earned runs for Cecil. His ERA jumped from 0.00 to 4.15 in the space of a few minutes. That was pretty much the game.

Esmil gave up 4 more runs in the 8th and that was really it for the game.

Drew Hutchison deserved better. He pitched 6 innings, allowed 6 hits, 2 earned, 1 walk and struck out 9. A great start.

On offense, we had homers from Dioner Navarro and Colby Rasmus.

Jays of the Day are Hutchison (.151 WPA) and Rasmus (.121).

Suckage goes to Cecil (-.525) and Rogers (-.090).

Who thought our bullpen would be the problem this year?>

I'm slow doing this today but here is the thread to submit questions for the 'Around the Nest' podcast. This week's show title:  Show title: Brad Glenn Close

The question of the day will be Question of the Show: For fans visiting Buffalo/NH/Dunedin/Lansing from out of town, what advice would you give them in coming to the stadium and seeing the area?

Host, Jesse Goldberg-Strassler will talk to Ben Wagner of the Bisons, Tom Gauthier of the Lugnuts, Tyler Murray of the Dunedin Blue Jays and Trey Wilson of the Lugnuts.

The podcast will tape tonight at 5:00, you can listen to it here.

A look at how the Blue Jays hitters have fared over the last couple of weeks?

In the 11 games over the past two weeks our bats have started working, as a group they hit .277/.357/.429, and scored 59 runs, a healthy 5.4 runs per game

Quite the pitching matchup this afternoon with Brandon Morrow facing off against the easily sunburnt Clay Buchholz. Our old friend Clay has been horrifically dreadful this season allowing 16 earned runs in just 18.2 innings along with 33 hits. His stats are a little inflated thanks to a .426 BABIP, proving that baseball gods really do exist. He hasn't faced many powerhouse lineups either, going up against the Brewers, Yankees, White Sox, and Orioles, never pitching into the seventh inning. It will be important for the Blue Jays to knock him out of the game early and start trying to wear out the Boston bullpen.

Buchholz has used six pitches this year including a fastball, sinker, cutter, splitter, curveball, and changeup. Depending on the day, Buchholz can have some VERY impressive movement on his cutter and splitter:

First pitch is fast approaching so we'll check out a GIF of his silly curveball and get right into the posted lineups:

via gamereax.com

The Blue Jays are finally giving Moises Sierra a chance to earn his valuable roster spot, while also giving Encarnacion a rest:

#bluejays lineup vs Buchholz & #redsox. EE's getting a day off, Bautista in at DH. pic.twitter.com/2HyQaTtHI0

— Brendan Kennedy (@BKennedyStar) April 26, 2014

Find The Link

Find the link between Clay Buchholz and the (one of the many) Blue Jays long man who came from the AL team in Ohio.

A win would be pretty nice today...

Red Sox 7 Blue Jays 6

You had to know that things weren't going to work out, when, first batter of the game, Morrow throws 4 strikes (all called balls) and gives up a walk. It got uglier from there. Morrow was terrible, and didn't get any help from the plate umpire. He was wild and when he wasn't, he wasn't getting the calls. 8 walks and 0 hits against, in 2.2 innings. And, when he left the game, with the bases loaded, he had a shutout going.

It didn't last long.

Gibby brought Chad Jenkins in. Gibby likes Jenkins, but this was the wrong move. Jenkins gave up the grand slam and then a solo homer, before getting out of the inning. Jenkins would give up another run in the 5th.

The offense tried. We scored 3 in the first. Jose Reyes walked, Melky Cabrera singled, Jose Bautista singled, then a wild pitch and a Dioner Navarro single and we had a 3-0 lead.

Then in the 8th, down 7-3, Juan Francisco hit his first Blue Jays homer. Singles by Colby Rasmus, Brett Lawrie and Edwin Encarnacion (pinch hitting) scored one. After Jonathan Diaz, pinch hitting, struck out, we had the bases loaded, 2-out and Melky up. But he hit a soft fly out and we were down 7-5 going into the 9th.

Jose Bautista homered to start the inning. 7-6. Francisco struck out. Navarro singled (no pinch runners left). Rasmus struck out (showing bunt at one pitch, dumb move). Lawrie singles (runners on the corners, 2 out).  Then Edwin hit a hard line drive. I thought he won the game for a moment, but it wasn't far enough over the head of center fielder, Jackie Bradley.

We had some great defense. Two terrific double plays to keep Morrow in the game, in the first two innings. We also got to see Juan Francisco at third base and Brett Lawrie at second (I hope that doesn't happen too often).

Jays of the Day: Navarro (.205 WPA) and Bautista (.188),

Suckage: Jenkins (-.476), Diaz (-.119 for that 1 strikeout), Cabrera (-.118), Colby (-.105). I'm giving one to Morrow too, he was only -.017 WPA, but, man, 8 walks and 8 outs. He was the victim of a bad strike zone (I'll let Gerse count the bad calls) but he was also wild.

We had a very impressive 1463 comments in our game thread, considering how depressing most of the game was. I'm always amazed at how decent people are, in our threads, even when games are bad and we are, very understandably, in bad moods. Thanks all. Kraemer_17 led the way with 156 comments. Great job.