Tonight we saw something we had yet to see this season. Besides the chat. The Blue Jays gave Dave Bush a lead to work with.
That had not happened before. Until the second inning of tonight's game, the Blue Jays had not held the lead, at any moment of the ball game, during any of Dave Bush's starts this year. This is a pretty good way to make sure a starter loses his first few decisions. Bush is now 0-3, although his average Game Score is a very respectable 49.7 (and even that was lowered considerably by his disastrous morning outing in Fenway on Patriots Day.)
The Jays have now scored 22 runs in Bush's 6 starts this year. Granted they only scored 11 of those runs while Bush was actually in the game, but better late than never. And while Zack Greinke would surely kill for Bush's run support, runs have been scarce when the young right-hander is working. The Jays are scoring just 2.12 runs per 9 innings while Bush is on the mound. Ouch! Bush now ranks 54th of the 57 eligible American League pitchers in run support. He's slightly ahead of Barry Zito and Jake Westbrook, and, of course, he's way ahead of Zack Greinke. The Royals are scoring 0.56 runs per 9 innings for Greinke, which is: a) almost impossible, and b) the kind of thing that can make a young man start drinking very heavily.
Meanwhile the Dodgers last night scored 10 runs for Brad Penny in the very first inning. In one inning! Some guys have all the luck.
Bush wasn't really very sharp last night. In his five innings he allowed just a single earned run, struck out 4 and walked only one - however the Sox hit a lot of bullets to various corners of the ball park. Happily, they ran themselves out of a few scoring chances, doing that small ball thing of theirs. Happily, Orlando Hudson cleaned up the rest of his mistakes. Bush is apparently trying to work a cut fastball into his repertoire. Bush already throws two fastballs, a two-seamer in the high 80s and a four-seamer in the 90s. He also features a slider and a slow curve. A lot of pitchers have trouble throwing both a slider and a curve, and the thinking may be that the cutter can replace the slider. But off last night, this is still a work in progress.
The bullpen lost last night's game, but it's hard to complain about the bullpen this week. They had thrown 11.1 hitless innings before Dye's game-tying homer off Pete Walker, who has been outstanding all year. And Miguel Batista came this close - hold thumb and forefinger 1/16th of an inch apart - to getting out of the eighth inning without allowing a run. What can you do. Like Zaun said afterwards, "They got a key hit, we didn't."
It could have been worse. With two out in the ninth, we could have had a pitcher throw a ball away with the bases loaded, allowing two runs to score and turning a 2-1 victory into a 3-2 defeat.
Or in the 10th inning of a tie game, we could have allowed three runs without the other guys even hitting a ball out of the infield. We would pull this off with the help of a pair of errors by the first baseman and another by the third baseman. Plus a leadoff walk, a hit batter, and a bases-loaded walk from the Greatest Relief Pitcher Who Ever Lived.
Now those would be tough ways to lose a ball game.
Anyway, we're now 30 games into the season and we can take a look at how the rotation is doing.
And there's no doubt about it. The star, the man carrying the team, is none other than Craig Burley. Yes, Craig has written five Game Reports, and all of them chronicle a victory by the Blue Jays. How does he do it? Pitching and defense - the Jays have surrendered just 13 runs in those five games. And it's not because he's caught a break and and lucked into a bunch of Halladay starts. Craig has covered Towers twice, Chacin, Lilly, and Halladay once apiece. Dave Bush eagerly awaits his turn. Something's got to give.
Pepper Moffatt is fighting the league to a draw. The Jays scored 20 runs for his first two Game Reports. Perhaps he didn't show enough gratitude, perhaps the team didn't like the use Pepper made of all that promising material. Anyway, they've scored a total of four runs in his last two games and stuck him with a pair of losses. Guess who started those last two games? Hint: he ranks 54th out of 57 AL pitchers in Run Support.
Rob, our other rookie, is sitting pretty with a 2-1 record. He took an awful beating on Patriots Day, which confirmed the suspicions of most of us that he's not really a morning person.
Mike Green is undefeated in his two games; and we received victories from the Emergency Admin Game Report, as well as Jobu in a very strong peformance out of the bullpen, filling in for the other rookie.
Some of us, however, are struggling. We need help. I include myself among them. After all, like Craig B., your humble (did I really say that? I didn't mean it) correspondent also has five decisions. Alas! I have had four losses to tell you about. Only Doc's masterpiece at Yankee Stadium last week has saved me from the Utter Humiliation. What can I say? The bullpen has let me down twice, once when Speier and chums blew a potential win for Josh Towers and again last night.
But I got one win. I got one! Whereas Jordan, Jordan, Jordan. You're 0-3, big fella. Sure, blame your run support. I know, the Jays have scored a total of 8 runs in those three games. Blame your bullpen - yeah, the SS Loogy took a loss for you. But you got to start hitting, pal. Jobu's looking pretty good down on the farm. I mean that in a manly way, of course.
Joe and NFH are both 0-1, and somehow they both appear to have done just the one Game Report. Craig and I have questions about that, as you can imagine. You can probably hear Burley and I grumbling that they're going to burn us out before the All Star Break.
Oh, I know, one's got a brand new kid who's so darn cute to look at that it's a miracle if he gets anything done. And yeah, I know, the other guy does have to spend a little bit of time helping to make sure This Whole Place is actually functioning. But we still like to grumble. So we do.
I'll be at the Dome this afternoon. Pepper Moffatt...err, Ted Lilly will be going for the good guys.
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