The Fighting Jays moved into sole possession of top spot in the American League East with a 5-4 walkoff win against the Tigers at the Rogers Centre Tuesday night. The magic number for the Mighty Jays to clinch the East is only 161 while the wild card magic number is a mere 160.
Rod "B.A." Barajas delivered the game winning RBI with a sac fly in the bottom of the ninth off former Jay Brandon "Detroit" Lyon (hey, I'm allowed to make that crack as a Lions fan!) to plate pinch-runner Jose Bautista. Aaron Hill looked like he was going to be the hero after delivering a three-run homer off Lyon to rally the Jays from a 3-0 deficit in the eighth. The Jays had been blanked over the first seven innings before Scott Rolen finally broke the goose egg with his first dinger of 2009.
David Purcey did his best to keep his team in the game by allowing just one run over six innings on a sac fly by Curtis Granderson. However, Tigers starter Edwin Jackson was better as he retired 18 of 19 hitters at one point. It looked like the game was going into the toilet for the home side when Purcey was burned for two runs in the seventh. The second run came when Purcey tried to give an intentional pass to Brandon Inge but his pitch sailed to the backstop. He wound up chucking the ball into center field in an attempt to get Marcus Thames, who had doubled in the first run of the inning. That allowed Carlos Guillen to score to make it 3-0 Tigers.
Still, Purcey had a decent outing by allowing just 8 baserunners (five hits, three walks) while getting eight groundouts and striking out five. The lefty gave way to Shawn Camp in the eighth and Camp made things interesting by loading the bases after getting the first men out but he kept the Detroiters off the board.
When the Jays rallied in the eighth to pull ahead 4-3, it was up to B.J. Ryan to slam the door shut. The Louisiana lefty struck out Thames for the first out but his next pitch was sent over the wall by Inge to tie the game at 4-4. He stranded a Granderson single to send the game into the bottom of the ninth. Ryan wound up with the blown save but picked up the win when Adam Lind drew a walk, Rolen singled pinch-runner Bautista to third, and an intentional walk to Lyle Overbay loaded the bases for Barajas and his winning sac fly. The one positive from Ryan's night was his fastball was in the 87-89 range and touching 90 according to MLB Game Day.
Just less than 17,000 folks took in the alcohol-free game that lasted two hours and 40 minutes. There were no delays so it looks like those in attendace behaved themselves for the most part. As the late great Mel Allen would say, "How about that?"
Tonight, Jesse Litsch gets the ball against Zach Miner. Litsch will throw the first pitch hopefully for a strike at 7:07 p.m. EDT at the R.C. I'm glad I restrained myself for not rhyming something off like Litsch won't throw a pitch in the ditch because he'd look like Mark Fidrych, just sayin'!
=============
In other TDIB notes.........
* The Red Sox beat the Rays 5-3 in their home opener as Josh Beckett did alright for himself.
* NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum was bad but Jeff Suppan was worse as the Giants outslugged the Brewers 10-6 in their home opener.
* Jim Thome and the White Sox powered their way to a 4-2 win over the Royals in the curtain raiser at U.S. Cellular Field.
* The Twins rallied in the ninth for a 6-5 win as the Mariners pissed one away at the Metrodome.
* The Braves are 2-0 and the Phillies are 0-2 after Atlanta's 4-0 whitewashing at Citizens Bank Park.
* The Marlins are also off to a 2-0 start with a second straight win over the Nationals.
* The Padres, Rockies, Cardinals, Astros, and A's pick up their first wins of 2009.
* D-Backs ace Brandon Webb is not too worried about his stiff right wing.
* Halos hurler and former Jay Kelvim Escobar's tired wing has led to his minor league rehab start being pushed back for a few days.
* Today's probable starters.
