Bird Watch: The Streak Ends

So the Jays faced off in their first game of a 3 game series against the Rays with the potential to beat the current club winning streak record, however they were unable to continue the winning streak. In terms of the performance it was rather odd, when one looks at the pitching line for both Esmil Rogers and Jeremy Hellickson it would seem rather strange as Rogers allowed 3 home runs, and Hellickson walked 4. More would think that both Rogers and Hellickson lacked control of their pitches however in the case of Rogers, all 3 home runs were in the second inning, and he only allowed 1 run then none the rest of the game. Then Hellickson walked 4, however 3 out of the 4 walks were of the same player Colby Rasmus, now I just take that as Colby having better plate discipline and getting a bit lucky in terms of what pitches were thrown. And due to this, on the Rays side they were able to save their bullpen and only needed to call upon 2 pitchers including their closer Fernando Rodney. Though the Jays were able to do that as well since Rogers managed to salvage things after the2nd and 3rd innings.

Now when we look at the offence of both teams they both performed well, though again outside of the 3 home run inning for the Rays there wasn't much in the way of offensive production though both teams hit fairly well each with runners in scoring position, which as I've said time and time again is the hallmark of a good offence. Though the home runs hit by the Rays definitely puts them up top in terms of rating their offence because it still takes a good hitter to take advantage of a pitch thats left in the 'sweet spot' of the strike zone.

On the defensive side both teams were fairly even as they both managed to pull off double plays, Toronto 1 and Tampa 2, and in addition the Jays defence managed to catch Wil Myers while he was trying to steal a base. and no errors were committed by either side.

Overall the game was a good one, though with the exception of those 3 home runs, but still I stand by what I said in that I believe the Jays are likely to take 2 out of 3 of the games in this series, and that is even more forward in my mind since Jose Reyes is scheduled to start for the Jays again on Wednesday.

-Eric