It is always nice to win one at Tropicana Field.
Also ice to see some extra base hits out of our offense too. 3 home runs tonight. 1 for Jose Bautista and 2 for Adam Lind. All solo homers, but still, nice to see. That's Adam's first 2 home run game of the season. Nice to see him made some good contact. Brett Lawrie and Mark DeRosa each doubled too.
We had 10 hits, 2 each from Lind, Lawrie and DeRosa. The only guys not to hit were Edwin Encarnacion (he had an RBI) and Anthony Gose (0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts). Gose also made an error in the field, getting a late break on a shallow fly, diving and managing to knock it behind him. Then he made a poor throw to home on the next play, a Ben Zobrist sac fly, where I thought Gose had a good shot at getting the runner at the plate, but he copied Colby's method of throwing it up the line. I'm not expecting Gose to hit much but I do expect him to play good defense.
J.A. Happ had a nice start, coming off the bereavement list. He didn't go deep into the game, just 5.1 innings, allowing hits, 1 walk, with 5 strikeouts. He hurt his knee a bit in he 4th inning, then allowed the hit that Gose should have caught and and 2 more hits, and 2 runs before getting out of the inning.
Our bullpen did their job tonight, something that hasn't happened enough lately, but they pitched the final 3.2 innings without allowing a run. Neil Wagner went 1.2 with a walk and a strikeout. Brad Lincoln gave up a single and got a strikeout and showed off a great curveball. Darren Oliver gave up a single in the 9th, got help from a nice play by Lawrie on a ground ball and made a nice play of his own on a grounder.
Jays of the Day are Lawrie (.187 WPA), Lind (.140), Bautista (.129) and Wagner (.138).
No one gets the Suckage, Gose had the low mark at -.052 and with his misplay and poor throws maybe should get one but I'll let him off since we won.
Lawrie scored a nice run in the 6th, he doubled, watched J.P. Arencibia and Mark DeRosa strikeout, and decided to take things into his own hands with Gose up. Before Alex Torres threw a pitch, Brett took off for third, Torres throw was late and wild and Brett came home.
I've had a long day, who books a flight at 6:00 am? I'm going to miss tomorrow's game, there is a game with some Expo alumni here tomorrow that I'd like to see.