The Jays go into the weekend with their lead in the division back up to two games.
First place, Kind of fun.
Aaron Hill's two run homer put the home team in front in the third, and the team abused John Danks without mercy in the next inning. They knocked out five straight hits, running the score to 6-0, at which point Guillen pulled his starter and summoned D.J. Carrasco. The Jays instantly greeted him with two more hits, and by the time the carnage was over, Brett Cecil had an 8-0 lead to work with. Which was more than enough.
The Jay can also thank Ichiro Suzuki for their two game lead. The Red Sox jumpred out to a quick 4-0 lead against Chris Jakubauskas, but the former shoe salesman (!) hung in there. In the fifth inning, Suzuki broke up Jon Lester's shutout with a solo homer. When he next came up to the plate, the Boston lead was 4-3, and there was a runner on base. Suzuki hit his second homer in as many innings to put the Mariners in front by 5-4. Jakubauskas and a trio of relievers made the lead stand up. Terry Francona finally benched David Ortiz, but the more things change... Rocco Baldelli fillled in as the DH and went 0-4, striking out three times.
In the Bronx, the Yankees looked as doomed as a team can look - they headed for the final bat down by two runs and facing Joe Nathan. But Brett Gardner tripled and scored on a single by Mark Teixeira. A walk to Rodriguez and a groundout moved the two runners into scoring position, where they scored on a Cabrera single. The Twins wasted a pair of homers by Justin Morneau and a strong, if odd, outing from Franciso Liriano (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 6 K).
For the second start in a row, Zack Greinke gave up an earned run. Obviously, the wheels are falling off. His offense bailed him out this time, knocking out 13 hits and scoring 8 runs against Adam Eaton and Lurch Hendrickson. So Greinke escaped his sub-par performance (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K) with another victory.
First place, Kind of fun.
Aaron Hill's two run homer put the home team in front in the third, and the team abused John Danks without mercy in the next inning. They knocked out five straight hits, running the score to 6-0, at which point Guillen pulled his starter and summoned D.J. Carrasco. The Jays instantly greeted him with two more hits, and by the time the carnage was over, Brett Cecil had an 8-0 lead to work with. Which was more than enough.
The Jay can also thank Ichiro Suzuki for their two game lead. The Red Sox jumpred out to a quick 4-0 lead against Chris Jakubauskas, but the former shoe salesman (!) hung in there. In the fifth inning, Suzuki broke up Jon Lester's shutout with a solo homer. When he next came up to the plate, the Boston lead was 4-3, and there was a runner on base. Suzuki hit his second homer in as many innings to put the Mariners in front by 5-4. Jakubauskas and a trio of relievers made the lead stand up. Terry Francona finally benched David Ortiz, but the more things change... Rocco Baldelli fillled in as the DH and went 0-4, striking out three times.
In the Bronx, the Yankees looked as doomed as a team can look - they headed for the final bat down by two runs and facing Joe Nathan. But Brett Gardner tripled and scored on a single by Mark Teixeira. A walk to Rodriguez and a groundout moved the two runners into scoring position, where they scored on a Cabrera single. The Twins wasted a pair of homers by Justin Morneau and a strong, if odd, outing from Franciso Liriano (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 6 K).
For the second start in a row, Zack Greinke gave up an earned run. Obviously, the wheels are falling off. His offense bailed him out this time, knocking out 13 hits and scoring 8 runs against Adam Eaton and Lurch Hendrickson. So Greinke escaped his sub-par performance (7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K) with another victory.
