Game Threat: It’s The Wright Time to Score Some Runs, Blue Jays (33-30) vs Orioles (36-24)

A walk-off win is always great, that much is obvious, but it’s even better when it comes against the Baltimore Dirty Trash Birds just one day after those same shit-birds grabbed a frustrating win in the series opener on Thursday. So thank you Edwin! I really wasn’t all too interested in watching the, wait for it, garbage-ass Birds from gutter-fuck Baltimore earn comeback wins in back-to-back games. 

So after splitting the first two games, the Jays will take on Mike Wright this afternoon as J.A. Happ gets the ball looking to rebound after a pretty ugly loss in Detroit. Keep it rolling! And fuck Baltimore! (Also, that’s a fantastic picture up top, capturing how EE really puts the Win in Edwin he he he.) 

Friday night’s game wasn’t all about the walk-off home run, you know. There were actually quite a few things to like about what the Jays did yesterday. 

Marco Estrada got the start and was virtually perfect until the fifth inning, fooling Baltimore’s lineup, which happens to be one of the league’s best, with an array of pin-point accuracy and mind-numbing speed changing. In the fifth, though, after allowing zero hits and a couple walks through four, he allowed a solo home run to Jonathan Schoop. At this point, it seemed like the Orioles kind of figured out what he was doing, laying off on his off-speed and breaking stuff and sitting on the fastball. 

Despite that, Estrada managed to work through a difficult final two innings, ultimately finishing with a line of six innings, four hits, four walks, eight strikeouts, and three earned runs which both came on home runs, which, incredibly enough, is pretty much the low-end of what we’ve come to expect from him at this point, because simply put, he’s been fantastic. 

So Estrada’s start was solid at a first glance, but pretty excellent considering the lineup he did it against, which features a wealth of good power hitters. But after him, the relievers were what was really fantastic about this game, which really isn’t something we’ve been able to say often this season. 

Jesse Chavez, Roberto Osuna, and Drew Storen (yeah, holy shit, right?!) combined for four complete shut down innings, as the Orioles only managed one single baserunner, which came on a two-out walk in the eighth. To be honest, when Estrada left the game after the sixth, I wasn’t too thrilled about the contest of getting into a bullpen showcase with the Orioles, but the three guys who really are supposed to be Toronto’s best three relievers certainly were last night. 

Also, by hitting that tenth inning homer last night, Edwin became the Jays’ all-time leader in walk-offs, breaking a tie with Adam Lind, Vernon Wells, Jesse Barfield, Joe Carter, Carlos Delgado, George Bell, and Josh Donaldson. It’s actually pretty nuts to see Donaldson on that list, considering he’s only been here for one full season. It goes to show just how ridiculous that season was, though. 

In injury news, top prospect Anthony Alford got hurt in Dunedin’s game yesterday when he collided with teammate Richard Urena. He was down for over fifteen minutes before being carted off the field and taken to a nearby hospital. That really, really sucks. Hopefully it isn’t serious. 

Continuing with injuries, Troy Tulowitzki, who was scheduled to join the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons for a rehab stint on Saturday, re-aggravated something in his injured leg while running the bases in an inter-squad game. So it looks like him returning to the Jays on Monday isn’t going to happen now. 

J.A. Happ had his second bad start of the season earlier this week in Detroit, surrendering six earned runs over five innings, making the dummies on Blue Jays Twitter question whether the Jays Ace acronym that his name stands for is actually valid or not. To be fair to Happ, the Tigers’ lineup was stacked with good, righty hitting, which is aways going to be rough for a left-handed pitcher like himself. In his three starts prior, Happ had gone 20 1/3 innings, allowing only five runs, so I think we can give him a pass here. 

This season, Happ has yet to face the Baltimore junk birds, but their lineup features a wealth of key left-handed hitters, which is a good thing for Jays Ace, as he’s not only keeping lefties to a .200 batting average and .305 on bace percentage, but he’s not allowing them to hit for any kind of power, holding them to a paltry .200 slugging percentage.

It’s kind of funny, despite all of their high draft picks the Orioles have had over the past decade and a bit for being so terrible year after year, guys like Mike Wright are the ones who are ending up in their starting rotation. Anyways, Wright had probably his first really good start of the season in his last time out against Kansas City, throwing seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. Otherwise, before that, his game log shows a bunch of starts in which he allows a whole bunch of baserunners, doesn’t really strike anybody out, and allows three or four runs. 

He faced the Jays earlier this season and had a start that was pretty typical for the way his season has gone. Over six innings, he allowed three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out four, and the Jays ultimately got the win. Jose Bautista is batting .500 in six career at bats against Wright, which also includes a home run, but unfortunately, he won’t be in the lineup. But do you know who is? Ryan Goins. And Ryan Goins has three hits off of him in five at bats. I’m expecting a nice offensive showing today.