Griffin: Jays bullpen blows save for seventh time as A's win 7-3

OAKLAND-The Jays can't seem to help but make every game an adventure. After leading twice on Tuesday, including a one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth, the Jays handed the ball to closer Francisco Cordero in search of his third save.

Instead, a leadoff double by Michael Taylor and a one-out single through a drawn-in infield by Cliff Pennington and the Jays' pen had blown its seventh save in 11 opportunities, with Cordero blowing each of his last three chances. It seems it's all BS all the time.

Then came a stolen base, an intentional walk, a passed ball, another intentional walk, a five-man infield with Jose Bautista coming in from right and a game-winning grand slam by Brandon Inge. The rest is history repeating itself and the Jays not learning. The second leading active closer behind Mariano Rivera, Cordero (1-2) is 2-for-5 in save opportunities.

“It's hard to explain what's going on, but like I said, I have to make better pitches, I've got to get people out, or I will have no job at all,” Cordero said, facing the media in the moments after the loss.

Manager John Farrell has gone to Cordero in save situations since Segio Santos suffered his shoulder injury back on April 20. That may change, but it was too soon after the devastating loss to the A's for Farrell to say anything about his ninth inning situation.

“He is our closer and to think that we're going to make a quick decision 10 minutes after a ballgame, a tough loss like tonight, that's not at this point yet,” Farrell said.

“It's been putting a hitter away. When he gets into a count, some hitters have fought some pitches off and he'll get a pitch on the plate to get a base hit. Tonight with the leadoff double the other way, then the sac-bunt and...the three outs in the ninth are pretty tough for us right now.”

Of all the unusual managerial decisions Farrell has made in his two years at the helm of the Jays, the decision to pinch-hit Omar Vizquel for a resurgent J.P. Arencibia with one out in the ninth, with runners on the corners and the score tied 2-2 is one of the most unusual. Then to have the 45-year-old shortstop work the count to 3-1 and pop up a squeeze bunt for the second out makes it more bizarre.

“I felt like right there, we're looking for a safety squeeze,” Farrell explained. “As good of a bat-handler that Omar is, I felt like that was where we could execute that. I wanted to stay away from the double play. Ball was not carrying here at night at all and yet here's a grandslam as a walkoff. Just felt that was an opportunity to execute a first and third safety-squeeeze and unfortunately he pops it up.”

For his part, a disconsolate Arencibia began to talk about the move in a very quiet clubhouse, then decided suddenly to remain quiet about being pinch-hit for suggesting he would address the question on Wednesday.

But even with the Vizquel popup, it all worked out, at least for the moment, as red-hot leadoff man Kelly Johnson came through, scorching a line drive single to right field putting the Jays ahead. Johnson drove in all three Jays' runs, with two of the club's six hits.

“I thiought we executed at times when we needed to, offensively,” Farrell suggested. “This is a tough ballgame to lose. You put yourself in that position in the ninth to get three outs and close out a victory and tonight we didn't convert.”

The A's feature some good young starting pitchers in their rotation, but then again, don't they always feature some good young starting pitchers in their rotation. The problem is that too often the names of said pitchers change from year-to-year. On Tuesday, the A's sent talented 23-year-old, Jarrod Parker out to face the talented and more experienced 27-year-old, Ricky Romero.

Parker pitched well in his third start since his recall on April 25, but neither man recorded a decision. The A's promising rookie righthander worked seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits, with five walks and three strikeouts in the opener of a brief two-game series.

Parker was followed to the hill by righthander Ryan Cook, who in 14 relief appearances has now pitched 15-2/3 innings without allowing a run. He has allowed just three hits over that stretch and lefthanded hitters for the season are 1-for-24. Both Parker and Cook arrived in the same trade from the Diamondbacks, for lefthander Trevor Cahill.

“They added some good young arms,” Farrell said prior to the game. “Parker is a guy that people around the game have known about while he was in the minor leagues and he's got a great arm.”

The Jays opened the scoring in the third inning on a two-run homer by Johnson to deep left field, scoring Arencibia who had doubled the other way into the right field corner. It was Johnson's seventh homer of the year, two behind team leader Edwin Encarnacion. But Farrell was aware that the A's have enough weapons themselves to make life difficult.

“They play to their strengths of the roster,” Farrell said. “They're leading the league in stolen bases. The key for us is going to be keeping the top two guys off the bases. There's good baseball people here and they're going to find a way to win games.”

Romero was not able to keep leadoff man Jemile Weeks off the bases. The A's second baseman singled in the first and reached third base. Then in the fifth, the pesky Weeks walked and stole second setting up a game-tying two-run homer by centre fielder Josh Reddick.

“The one pitch, the 2-1 fastball he left up over the plate to Reddick is the extent of the scoring,” Farrell said of his starting pitcher's efforts. “In a couple of spots where Ricky had to make a big pitch he did. On a couple of occasions against Taylor to snuff out any ptential threat in the middle innings.”

Romero has struggled against lefthanded batters and the trend continued. Entering the game, lefthanders were hitting .262 with a .767 OPS. Meanwhile he had limited righthanded batters to a .162 average and a .513 OPS. Romero did not have his great stuff on this cool night. He was forced to throw an uncharacteristic 110 pitches through six innings. He walked five batters, a season high.

“I'm disappointed in myself,” Romero said. “Five walks is very uncharacteristic of me. It's just one of those things where you have to battle through it. It felt like I'm cutting myself short of outings. Five walks, that's 20 pitches, that's 20 pitches that can get me deeper into the seventh and eighth inning.

“I'm just hurting myself. It was a struggle finding my release point. I think it dates back to last outing and the one before that. I just haven't been able to find myself yet. I continue to work hard at it and obviously watching some film and kind of seeing what the problem is, but it's something that I'm sure I'll kind of fix quick.”

Romero has gone over the 100-pitch mark in each of his last four outings and remains undefeated in his seven starts. He handed it over to the bullpen and Jason Frasor in the seventh. Lefthander Darren Oliver worked a perfect eighth. But then along came Cordero and it all fell apart.

“As teammates all we can do is stand by each other,” Romerso said of Cordero's struggle. “This is probably where he needs us the most. We're going to do just that. You've just got to pack up tomorrow and get back to work. I'm sure when the bell rings, we'll be ready.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Griffin: Blue Jays brought back to earth in sloppy loss to Angels

ANAHEIM-All of the magic, all the superb Blue Jays' defence of the first two nights that had carried the team to back-to-back shutouts at the Big A disappeared on Saturday in a sloppy 6-2 loss against an Angels lineup that was minus Albert Pujols for the first time this year.

The Angels' three-run sixth inning was a microcosm of what ailed the Jays on this night as they tried for a fifth straight win on a beautiful southern California night. Perhaps Kyle Drabek, with his 87 pitches through five innings shouldn't even have gone back out for the sixth. He hadn't commanded the strike zone all night and manager John Farrell had seven relief pitchers in his bullpen that were well rested. But the young righthander stayed on.

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“I just couldn't seem to find the four-seam fastball,” Drabek said. “That's what beat me today. It just needs to be fixed. That's pretty much the end of that.”

Attacking Drabek's second offering in the sixth, first baseman Mark Trumbo, playing his third position in three games, crushed a home run deep to left field for a 3-1 lead.

“It was supposed to be away, but it was right down the middle,” Drabek said.

Following the homer, Vernon Wells walked and Erick Aybar bounced an infield single to shortstop setting up more defensive slop. Angels manager Mike Scioscia is a fan of small-ball, so when catcher Bobby Wilson squared to bunt it shouldn't have surprised anyone on the field. Drabek saw the bunt and charged straight towards the plate instead of heading for the third base foul line. Third baseman Brett Lawrie doubled back to the bag anticipating a force. Drabek watched helplessly as the ball passed him and settled in the grass halfway between third base and the mound.

“I fell off too much to where I couldn't get to it,” Drabek said.

Once the ball passed Drabek on the ground, it should have become Lawrie's responsibility to get an out at first base. He didn't. With the bases loaded and 99 pitches, enter Jason Frasor. More slop.

“With the exception of the two pitches for homers that ran back to the middle of the plate, I thought Kyle had the game in check even though he kind of wiggled out of some jams early,” Jays' manager John Farrell said. “I thought the game was in control at that point.”

A long sacrifice fly by Trout left runners at the corners. Then came more slop. Frasor fielded a one-hopper back to the mound from Alberto Callaspo and, in starting a double play, fired a one-hopper into centre field for the Angels' fifth run. He escaped with no further damage. The Jays were lucky to still be in the game, but it shows how well they have played in general to still have a chance.

“Tonight Kyle didn't have his best command, or the command that he had his last outing against Texas,” Farrell said. “His pitch count was up there. Two balls leaked back over the plate, but yet he comes out in the sixth inning, 2-1 game. But the inning started to unravel for him.”

There was more. Other sloppy glove plays on this unfortunate night included a gentle grounder between the legs of Lind at first base, a second bad decision on a bunt, with Lawrie perhaps showing his inexperience, retreating to third once again as the ball rolled past Joel Carreno, resulting in another Angels hit. Then there was amazingly a repeat of the sixth inning Frasor error this time by Luis Perez on a combacker to the mound, also thrown past second base. Just write this debacle off.

“Unfortunately, defensively we didn't really take care of the ball in those middle or later innings, where we kind of contributed to a couple of those runs,” Farrell understated. “On the two bunt plays we didn't break off the mound as we typically should. It's a very simple responsibility as far as the pitcher's concerned. He's got the third base line. The one bunt by Wilson was a hard bunt that kind of got by Kyle. In Joel's situation it's instinctual where he's got that area of coverage.”

It became evident early on that it would be difficult for Drabek to duplicate the efforts of his two teammates, Brandon Morrow and Henderson Alvarez and extend the magic. The problem was the young righthander was not getting ahead consistently in the count with first pitch strikes.

In the second, Wells tomahawked a line drive double off the low fence in left, then scored on a two-out single by the catcher Wilson. It broke a streak of 23 shutout innings for Jays pitchers.

The Angels early lead did not last long. In the top of the fourth, Jays' leadoff hitter Kelly Johnson chopped a ball over the mound for an infield single, stole second and went to third on a groundball to the right side by Yunel Escobar. With the Angels' infield in and Jose Bautista at the plate, the Jays' most important player scorched a line drive over shortstop into left centre field to tie the game.

While Farrell continues to write his slumping star slugger's name into the three-hole of his lineup card every game, Scioscia took a different approach with Pujols. Homerless in his first 27 games, Scioscia sat his star first baseman Saturday and, in fact, suggested he not take batting practice to give him the full experience of a day off. He will be back on Sunday.

“They have a very good lineup, with or without Albert Pujols in there,” Farrell said. “Obviously, he's been one of the best hitters in the game, maybe the best over the last 10 years. We can't pitch just to one guy. We've got nine guys we've got to face.”

Drabek never really was able to settle in. With one out in the fifth, he allowed a long home run to centre field by the leadoff hitter Mike Trout, his first of the year to put the Angels back in front. He walked Callaspo and was not helped by a groundball error by Lind.

“We weren't sharp, I will say that,” Farrell understated.

The Jays narrowed the lead to 5-2 with a long home run by Lind off Wilson in the seventh. For his career, lefty against lefty, Lind has five hits and two homers in 10 at-bats vs. Wilson.

“The home run was probably the most aggressive swing he's taken in seven or eight days,” Farrell said of his first baseman. “It's gopod to see. Last night he gets a base hit and a walk late in the game. A chance to build on it tonight aganst a quality lefthander.”

The Angels completed the scoring on a single by Kendrys Morales in the eighth after the two more botched plays. The one redeeming aspect of the night for the Jays was adding three more double plays turned to their league-leading total.

The Jays will attempt to win their third straight series on Sunday afternoon.

 

 

Griffin: Henderson Alvarez tosses Blue Jays second straight shutout over Angels

ANAHEIM-The belief over the last three seasons has been that “as Jose Bautista goes, so goes the Blue Jays' offence.” Thus, when the Jays' badly slumping right fielder crushed an Ervin Santana fastball to deep left centre field for his fifth home run of the year, a two-run blast in the third to lead the Jays to a 4-0 win, all signs pointed to a good night for Henderson Alvarez and company. Moments like that have been rare for Bautista thus far.

“I'm trying to have good at-bats,” Bautista said of his philosophy. “Even today I only got one hit, but I felt I had four good at-bats. I was 3-2 the two times that I didn't do anything.

“It's just that I'm not seeing many pitches over the heart of the plate. I'm seeing strikes, but they're just really good pitcher's pitches on the corners. They're not making many mistakes. Today they made one and I was able to attack it.”

The night before, in facing Dan Haren, Bautista, who has batted in the three-hole every game this season, had looked dazed and confused as he went hitless in four at-bats, with two strikeouts, one that bounced four feet in front of the plate that he chased and the other that painted the outside corner. Instead of his usual flashes of temper, he accepted each failed at-bat with quiet resignation. Worrisome.

“When you're not doing your job the right way or how you're capable of doing it, it is going to affect you if you care about what you're doing,” Bautista said. “That's just what's happening to me. A lot of bad breaks have been going not my way. I just hope the tide turns soon.”

Fact is in the recent history of these two teams it's usually been Santana that has gotten the better of the Jays. The hard-throwing righhander had defeated the Jays five times in his previous six starts, but this time he was bested by the strike-throwing 22-year-old Alvarez. Just as had been with Brandon Morrow on Thursday, the young Venezuelan matched up well against an aggressive hitting Angels' lineup.

“He has a heavy sinker that he's going to throw on the plate,” Jays' manager John Farrell said. “You go through 10 starts a year ago, the book gets out on guys. He's going to be around the plate. He's going to throw strikes. He typically, you would think, would get more contact early in the count.”

Alvarez did in fact pound the strike zone early and often. Over the course of his nine shutout innings, Alvarez threw 97 pitches, allowing just five hits, with a walk and three strikeouts. It was his second straight win, after recording just one victory over his first 14 career starts.

“Just another outstanding pitched game tonight,” manager John Farrell said. “Henderson, right from the first pitch through the 97th, stayed in his delivery well, didn't overthrow the baseball, couple of comebackers up the middle that fortunately didn't get him too much. A lot of first-pitch strikes, a lot of strikes overall and with that sinker can neutralize their power and keep the ball on the ground.”

The Jays' defence was solid to spectacular. Colby Rasmus made a nice running catch off Kendrys Morales. Yunel Escobar speared a line drive to his right, ticketed for left field. Brett Lawrie scooped a one-hop rocket on the backhand off Mike Trout and threw him out.

“They did a great job,” Alvarez said through interpreter Luis Rivera. “They played good defence tonight, but they also were in the right position.”

When he found himself in trouble early in innings and needed a double play, he resorted to what he does best to escape jams in the second and seventh innings, coaxing groundballs. In the second, with men on first and second, Mark Trumbo grounded sharply to Escobar to start a double play. In the sixth it was Howie Kendrick doing the same thing with Torii Hunter on first.

“I feel like this is the best game I've ever pitched,” Alvarez admitted. “In Low-A ball I pitched a complete-game also but that doesn't compare to a big-league game. My sinker was moving. I felt like after the first inning, if my sinker continued to move the way it was then I would have a good night.”

Despite a fastball that touches 95-97 miles-per-hour, Alvarez does not miss many opposing bats. He is the classic "pitch-to-contact" type. On Friday, it didn't seem to be a problem, but the question was asked, should he try for more Ks as his career progresses?

“It's almost like saying you're going to revamp a delivery to try and create deception or you're going to come up, or attempt to come up with a breaking ball that physically, he might not be able to throw,” Farrell cautioned. “He's a contact pitcher, he's a groundball pitcher. There's going to be less swing and miss with those type of pitchers to begin with. No, sometimes you look at guys and take them for who they are, which in his case is a very good athlete who's going to always have a high groundball rate. No, it's not being overly concerned with the swing and miss.”

As a pitcher, when you induce a lot of groundballs, odds are that some will be back to the mound and that some of those will be shots. There were three such grounders for Alvarez that tested his athleticism. In the fifth inning, Erick Aybar scorched a one-hopper. As he finished his delivery rotating through the ideal fielding position, he reached behind him and the ball hit him squarely on the left hamstring. He recovered and made the play, prompting a visit by trainer George Poulis. He was OK.

The second tough fielding play came in the sixth inning. Maicer Izturis drilled a grounder back to the hill that Alvarez blocked. It rolled down the front of the mound onto the grass. He retrieved it and threw a strike to Adam Lind. The final hard-hit grounder to him was a ball he stabbed at, a rocket through the middle by catcher Bobby Wilson into centre field for a two-out hit.

When Maicer Izturis opened the ninth with a double to left-centre, it seemed the complete game and the shutout were in doubt with the meat of the Angels order scheduled. He finished the task.

“The only thing to worry about was the next hitter,” Alvarez explained. “It was Pujols and then next hitter and the next hitter. I wasn't thinking about the complete game or the shutout. I was concentrating on the next hitter.”

Farrell was asked, after Morrow's Thursday gem, a 102-pitch three-hit shutout, whether Alvarez with his pitch-to-contact approach and his groundball generating ability to get two outs on one pitch was a future candidate for a 100-pitch complete game.

“In the right set of circumstances, aggressive team, lot of strikes early in the count, even if a guy gets on with a base hit, the two outs with one pitch is something that he's been very adept at, so you don't see that changing,” Farrell said. “Alvarez has that ability.”

Meanwhile, it's not like his mound opponent was horrible. Santana, whose record dropped to 0-6 in six starts, allowed just the three third innings runs on three hits, striking out 10 Blue Jays in eight innings. It was the eighth career start with 10 or more strikeouts.

The Jays added a run in the ninth against reliever Jason Isringhausen on a hit-and-run single by Eric Thames and a fielder's choice by Lawrie driving in Edwin Encarnacion.

The Morrow and Alvarez back-to-back complete games were the first by the Jays since September 25-26, 2008 at New York and Baltimore by Roy Halladay and Scott Richmond. The back-to-back shutouts were the first by the Jays since June 16-17, 1993 by Jack Morris and Al Leiter.

Farrell suggested that the lack of work for his bullpen because of the complete games was not a problem, in fact was more like payback for the workload the relievers were handed early on.

The Jays have now won four in a row and are 16-11, with seven games remaining on the road trip to Anaheim, Oakland and Minneapolis.

 

 

Griffin: Blue Jays catcher Jeff Mathis touched by the Angels

ANAHEIM-The Blue Jays' 29-year-old backup receiver Jeff Mathis has been an Angel for most of his career. He was with that team in the other dugout all of his first decade as a pro, selected by the Angels in the first round of the June '01 draft. He remained with them until an off-season trade to the Jays last December 3.

As such, everything about Angels Stadium was familiar – except the visitors clubhouse where he found himself Monday, prior to the opener of this four-game weekend series.

“It was a little weird coming back, going into the other clubhouse, but it was good to see the guys,” Mathis said of his very visible on-field reunion on Thursday with former mates. “I was in this clubhouse one time before. I actually came in here for a workout before we went to Taiwan last year in the offseason.”

Mathis had emerged from the Jays' dugout early in the afternoon, in hisnew Blue Jays shorts and a gray tee, exchanging new hugs and old war stories with a group of old Angels friends on the field for early batting practice.

Angels' manager Mike Scioscia eventually joined the group, much more formally shaking hands with his former catcher, a big slap on the shoulder replacing a hug.

There had been rumours from Angel insiders just after the trade was made to the Jays last winter that the relationship between the two men had been a tough-love one because of the fact Scioscia himself had been a hard-nosed catcher with great expectations of Mathis. The thought was that perhaps a career average below .200 and an inability to ever nail down a starting role in Anaheim had frustrated the manager.

“Maybe a little, but there's a lot of advantages to it too,” Mathis said when asked about any difficulty playing for a manager that had been an all-star catcher.

“There's a lot of ins and outs and his attention to detail to things it was pretty cool. We were close, we were together for a long time and he taught me a lot. I learned a lot of what I do behind the plate from him and I owe him a lot.”

Mathis was a frustrating player for Angels fans to root for over his seven years. He was a bane to new-wave stats. His career .194 batting average and paltry .557 OPS in 426 career games made him one of the least productive offensive players in baseball.

Mathis showed flashes of brilliance, of what could be, in the '09 post-season, with eight hits and five doubles in 15 at-bats. There was no carryover to that success. But through all those times, good or bad, Scioscia stayed with him, to make him the best he could be.

“Anytime we were on the field whether it was Spring Training or batting practice, he was always teaching,” Mathis recalled. “His attention to detail, and doing everything the right way, you respect him for that and his consistency with that was what sticks out for me.”

Perhaps all Mathis really needed was a change of scenery after all those struggling offensive years in SoCal dressed in red. Perhaps all he needed was to be in this new role, the one he is in with the Jays as a once-a-week starter and wizened mentor to an emerging young star in J.P. Arencibia. The sample is still small and the jury is still out.

But in his first seven games with the Jays, Mathis is batting .294, with two doubles, two homers, four walks and a 1.193 OPS. He will likely catch one game this weekend vs. his former team. It's always difficult to separate yourself emotionally from players you battled shoulder-to-shoulder with for 11 years. As such, Mathis could not help on Wednesday but find himself caught up in Jered Weaver's successful bid for a no-hitter. He caught up with it as the Jays' charter flight touched down, just up the road at Los Angeles International.

“That was pretty fun to watch,” Mathis admitted. “Anytime you put up that many zeroes and then you put up a zero in the hit column too, that's pretty special.

“When we landed, I pulled it up on the internet, and it was like the sixth inning and I saw he got through that and I was like, oh dang. Then we drove from LAX and got to the hotel in the bottom of the eighth so I went upstairs and came back down to see it.”

Mathis admits it was nice to come home for the first time, but when he finally steps into the batter's box wearing blue, not red, those feelings will disappear. He's a Blue Jay now.

 

Griffin: Efficient Morrow masterful in Blue Jays win over Angels

ANAHEIM-Entering the four-game series at Angel Stadium, it had been the home team's pitching making headlines. But on Thursday, it was Jays' righthander Brandon Morrow pitting a halt to the Angels' modest three-game win streak with a 5-0 shutout over Dan Haren for his third straight impressive win. The Jays have now won three in a row and are at 15-11 for the season.

The Angels had entered the series with back-to-back shutouts by Jerome Williams and Jered Weaver, the latter being a no-hitter. Haren after two had extended his team's hitless streak to 17 innings before Brett Lawrie led off the third with a line drive single to right. Haren allowed four straight hits before righting the ship, but that included a three-run homer to left by J.P. Arencibia, his second. Arencibia is hitting .333 in his last 12 games. It made it easier on Morrow, but did he actually need the help?

“It's obvious three runs is a huge cushion as far as the pitch selection, how you pitch guys,” Arencibia explained. “You can kind of gamble a little bit more on different pitches. With the way he was out there tonight a couple runs was all he was going to need to be able to win that game.”

But the story of the night was the Jays' righthander, Morrow, with the electric stuff. He tossed his second career complete game and his first since a one-hitter against Tampa Bay on August 8, 2010. That start two years ago was considered a breakout performance for Morrow with 17 strikeouts, but mostly because of pitch count struggles, he was not able to go nine innings again until Thursday.

“I missed more bats that night, but I think I pitched better tonight,” Morrow said. “My fastball command was really what did it for me. That's probably the best I've ever been with that. I felt like I could have hit the down and away strike with my eyes closed tonight.

“When we get that early lead and you keep your pitch count down, you're thinking complete game. I didn't throw any changeups. I threw two curveballs. I was just doing it with fastball command. I threw it where I wanted to every time. I was able to dial it up, change speeds.”

This supreme Morrow effort was a three-hitter, needing just 102 pitches. Since losing to the Rays on April 18, this year, Morrow has defeated the Royals, M's and Angels, working 21-2/3 innings, allowing one run on 15 hits, with one walk and 19 strikeouts. He has faced 52 straight batters without issuing a base-on-balls. He may finally be getting it.

“By far,” Jays manager John Farrell said when asked if that was the best Morrow he's seen. “That's the best game I've seen him pitch. Just a powerful fastball, he was down in the zone all night, very good slider. They're an aggressive team. Once you throw a first-pitch strike and continue to locate, which he did, we played good defence behind him. When he enters the ninth inning with 84 pitches, he still had plenty left. That was evident by the command and to finish it off like he did was just one heck of a pitched ballgame for him.”

As spring training unfolded, it seemed a deep-thinking Morrow was ignoring his ability to blow people away in favour of the other option, pitching more to contact and thus, theoretically, going deeper into games.

By pitching to contact as a priority, he was leaving too many hittable pitches and the results were not what he wanted. In his first three starts he allowed six home runs.

“We talked about how his arm strength continues to come along and the improved command with his overall stuff and that was certainly the case tonight,” Farrell said.

“We played excellent defence behind him, Brett (Lawrie) almost a highlight reel. A couple of double plays, Eric (Thames) runs one down in left field. But anytime you have a pitcher throwing 73-74-percent strikes, no walks with that kind of power stuff it's fun to watch for any baseball fan.”

The question for Morrow becomes do you want a starter pitching into the eighth allowing four runs on 100 pitches or throwing six shutout with the same 100 pitches.

In Thursday's efficiently effective start, Morrow needed just 85 pitches to get through eight innings. He has proved he can win either way, looking for contact early or looking for missed bats late. His manager feels he is getting stronger as the season unfolds, leading to more effective movement on his fastball.

“I feel like I have a little bit better life on it,” Morrow admitted. “Maybe not velocity, but better life, especially down in the zone than I did the first couple of starts. I'm really starting to get into the rhythm, mechanically. I hit that down and away pretty much every time I wanted to and I elevated every time I wanted to, both sides of the plate. The defence was great. The two double plays, I like it. Two for one, I'll take that over throwing 12 pitches to strike a couple of guys out anytime.”

Morrow's batterymate, Arencibia believes that the way the righthander pitched on Thursday, it makes him one of the toughest pitchers in the game.

“Hands down, I think he's developed into that he doesn't just have to strike everybody out,” Arencibia said. “He can get outs early, especially getting ahead of guys. It's pretty crazy, I remember looking up at the screen and it was like the sixth inning and he was in the 50s in pitches. I said, man this is unbelievable. That's pretty special to be able to do, especially against a team that the lineup top-to-bottom is one of the best lineups in the big leagues. To be able to do that is pretty special.”

The Jays added a pair of runs in the sixth inning on a throwing error by Mark Trumbo with two out and two runners on the move. With Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar on base and two outs, Edwin Encarnacion grounded a ball to third. Trumbo's throw faded into the runner's path and Albery Pujols shied away letting the ball carom off the screen in front of the Jays' dugout. Before Howie Kendrick could recover the ball, Escobar hustled all the way around for a second unearned run.

“We scored three quick runs in the third and the way Brandon was rolling the two extra that were somewhat of a gift began to spread things out,” Farrell explained.

With the 3-4-5-6 spots in the Jays order combining to go hitless in 16 at-bats, it was the flip-flopped top two in the order, plus the bottom three that got the job done. It was the second straight win, with 16 runs scored in two games with Johnson batting leadoff and Escobar second.

The Jays received further good news after the game from the office of Dr. Lewis Yocum. Jays' closer Sergio Santos' MRI was clear and he will be able to resume a throwing program on Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Griffin: Blue Jays land in SoCal in time for two celebrations

The Blue Jays gather at Casa Romero.                                                            TWITPIC

ANAHEIM-The Blue Jays, following a successful homestand, with four wins in six games against the Mariners and the powerful Rangers, flew to California following Wednesday's 11-5 win vs. Texas to begin a 10-game, 11-day road trip to Anaheim, Oakland and Minnesota.

The Jays' offence is starting to click behind its new breakout star, Edwin Encarnacion, while the starting pitching continues to be solid, going deep into games, day-in and day-out.

It was a major chest-thumping step up for the club to bounce back with two straight wins vs. the Rangers after the impressive Japanese rookie Yu Darvish had dazzled them in the series opener on Monday. The Rangers remain confident. The Jays are the ones that needed the boost. It was a happy flight to the West Coast for the Jays following the game.

Upon arrival, there was an interesting juxtaposition of duelling celebrations with the Angels and with the Jays later on Wednesday night.

While Ricky Romero and 10 of his Jays teammates gathered at Casa Romero, the home of his parents, for a home-cooked meal from Ricky's mom twitpic.com/9gmcyz in a nice bonding experience, at the same time the Angels and their fans were being re-energized at the Big A by a no-hitter being spun against the Twins by ace righthander Jered Weaver. 

The Angels definitely needed the timely boost in morale provided by the 9-0 Weaver no-no, even though Albert Pujols continued his longball drought. The good news, a small blessing at best, is that Pujols hit three line drives and it looks like he's getting closer to finding the seats in fair territory. Tough to see that as light at the end of the tunnel when the Pujols tunnel cost 10-years and $240 million. Nevertheless, the no-hitter was the focus du jour.

As for the Jays celebration, it's just another example of the genuine closeness of this Jays roster that is remarkable when I consider some of the other 25-players, 25-cabs clubhouse mentalities that I have witnessed in my 40 seasons of being around major-league baseball on a professional basis, since '73.

The Romero family makes this team-meal thing a tradition, even whipping up tasty Mexican treats for the boys whenever they visit their son in Dunedin for a week or two during spring training. But what makes the photo that @RickyRo24 himself tweeted, what makes it special are small details like the serious-looking 21-year-old starter Drew Hutchison, with the team for two weeks, but invited along with the others, sitting at the Romero's kitchen table still wearing the tie and jacket that he had worn on the flight from Toronto earlier in the day. That's a show of respect by Hutchison and that's team-building by the leader of the rotation, Romero.

As for Weaver and the Angels, they have now won three games in a row and are on their first mini-roll of the 2012 season. Don't count them out.

I arrived at my hotel across from the stadium in time to watch the final three innings on TV and, after it was over, the fans that streamed out of the ballpark were all upbeat and celebratory. At the popular Catch restaurant and bar within solid two-iron distance of the ballpark, not one mention was made of the Pujols slump, instead it was all high-fives and smiles, all about the local kid, Weaver, who had signed an extension this winter to stay with Anaheim at a home-team discount. His parents were there in the stands and it was a nice scene, with Jered hugging his mom and dad again and again on the field.

The season is young and the Angels, with Weaver, Dan Haren, C.J. Wilson, Ervin Santana and fifth starter Jerome Williams in their rotation, will still be a factor. The Jays are in tough as they always are when they come to California.