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Message #: 26188
The schizophrenic Blue Jays and their hilarious starting rotation find themselves on top of the A.L. East for the moment. If the offense can homer and score at the rate we did in this series, that atrocious pitching won't matter as much. But as many runs as we scored in these three games, it *still* nearly wasn't enough.... Game 1: Gophers were flying all over the place today, and for the entire series. The Jays built a 6-1 lead and then smartly got Jimmy Key out of the game. Not nearly so smartly, we brought in Tom Henke. With 2 on & 2 out in the seventh Henke pitched too carefully to Cecil Fielder and loaded the bases with a walk. THEN he pulled off the "Perfect Sambito" by allowing a Grand Slam to Alan Trammell on his next (and final) pitch. Fred McGriff tripled leading off the 8th, and died there. Toronto got 1st & 3rd with 0 outs in the 9th. Followed by a strikeout. And another strikeout. Then Tony Fernandez was IW'd in order to get to Fred McGriff. McGriff singled home a pair and Joe Carter finished it off with a 3-run homer. Detroit got another gopher in their half of the 9th but the final was still 11-6 in Toronto's favor although the game was actually far closer than that score indicates. ==================================== Game 2: DEA starter Fernando Valenzuela allowed 2 homers among the 5 batters he faced before leaving and the Jays had a 6-0 lead after 1 which became 9-3 after 3. The TOA offense shut down abruptly but the Tigers got 3 more off of hapless Todd Stottlemyre via yet another gopher in the 7th. 9-6. But Kelly Gruber got 2 of those runs back a few seconds later and the final score was 11-6, though once again the outcome was in considerable doubt until the last batter was retired. Three batters registered their first triples of 1990 in this contest: Pat Borders, Greg Briley and Dave Clark. ==================================== Game 3: David Wells, like most TOA pitchers, is suffering gopher bites at a rate far in excess of reality and today was certainly no exception. The first 4 Detroit batters of the game compiled a 1.000 batting average and 3 of them scored. And a 4th run came when Wells was gophered again in the 3rd. Meanwhile Detroit starter Frank Tanana was fooling everybody, but that came to an end in the 5th. Gruber cut our deficit to 4-3 with a round-tripper and -- finally after over 100 plate appearances -- rookie John Olerud hit his first major league home run and the Jays had a 5-4 lead. One final homer, a 2-run shot by Mitch Webster, provided important insurance in the 9th and Wells completed his shaky 142-pitch effort without sabotage from the Arson Squad. Final score: 7-4. Alan |
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