"You got a diamond, you got nine men, you got a hat, and a bat," sings the Rogers Centre crowd during the seventh-inning stretch, after watching their nine Blue Jays take their bats and score six runs on three homers against Twins starter--and Canadian--Scott Diamond.
After a soul-crushing shutout on Saturday, the Toronto Blue Jays won the rubbermatch 11-5 in front of the 43,795 fans who showed up for J.P. Arencibia bobblehead giveaway day.
Spot starter Todd Redmond allowed a leadoff walk that eventually made it to third base thanks to an Arencibia throwing error in a caught stealing attempt. Redmond got out of it and had a pretty good outing, keeping the Twins hitless until the fifth inning when Aaron Hicks slammed a two-run homer to right. I'm glad that Hicks is on his way out of town. Redmond's start went five innings; he struck out four while allowing just that one hit, but he did walk three Twins.
Guelph, Ontario's favourite son Scott Diamond fared less well. He pitched 4.2 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits, walking four while striking out just one. Colby Rasmus started the scoring in the fourth with a two-run shot, then Jose Reyes led off the fifth with a solo shot, before Rajai Davis crushed a three-run homer later that inning to break the game open.
Adam Lind hit the ball hard the whole game but didn't get anything out of it until the sixth when he cashed in Edwin Encarnacion with a double to the wall. Lind could've had two RBIs on that play, but Jose Bautista was caught wandering off second base and was tagged out after a brief rundown. In the seventh, the Blue Jays tagged on four more runs on a Rasmus double to score Davis, then Rasmus crossed the plate on a Maicer Izturis single.
Later in the eighth, Encarnacion, who was the last Blue Jays starter without a hit, tripled (!) in Reyes and Bautista off of Twins reliever Josh Roenicke. If you recall, Encarnacion was the "throw in" when the Blue Jays acquired pitching prospects Roenicke and Zach Stewart from the Reds for Scott Rolen. Munenori Kawasaki then came in to pinch run for Encarnacion (who was probably out of breath) to a thunderous cheer from the crowd. Toronto really, really, really loves Kawasaki.
Jays of the Day! Colby Rasmus (+.266) gets it for his 3-for-4, 3 HR RBI effort, Rajai Davis (+.213) gets it for his three-run homer, Jess Dunn (+1.000) gets it for throwing the first pitch and beating cancer!
Suckage Jays: None. Adam Lind has the number for it (-.098) but as I wrote above he hit balls hard, but they were just directly at fielders.
The Blue Jays get Monday off before heading off to Cleveland on Tuesday for a three-game series (note: Thursday is a 12:05 pm start).