Rod saves the day
In Rod We Trust, indeed.
Cito Gaston trusted Rod Barajas to come off the bench to spark some offense, and that he did. The pinch-hit solo home run by Barajas was the game winner earlier this afternoon in the Blue Jays narrow 8-7 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Barajas’ home run could not have come at a better time because if the game went further than nine innings, there might not have been any relievers left to pitch in the game. The Blue Jays literally paraded the entire bullpen out to the mound for this game; all seven relievers were used after Brad Mills got off to a bad start and had to be yanked after close to four innings of work.
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As I was following the game on MLB Gameday, all I could think was “Accardo’s going to have to pitch today”. Turns out my instincts were correct as Cito Gaston called on Jeremy Accardo to finish the game and earn the save. It was a little scary there in the bottom of the ninth, but an incredible catch by Vernon Wells kept Blue Jay killer Jason Werth off the basepaths.
To come away with the series sweep against the defending World Champions was a huge boost for the Blue Jays. Today’s and Tuesday’s game were both matches that could have gone either way and luckily the Jays were on the winning end of both games. Now just a single game behind the New York Yankees in the division, hopefully the Jays can build on this momentum going into Washington to face the Nationals.
Despite being the laughing stock of the MLB, the Nationals are coming off winning two straight against the Yankees. Some might say that the Blue Jays are basically guaranteed to win two or even all three games in Washington, but it’s been my experience that you don’t underestimate teams that are at the bottom of the division. The Nationals are just as hungry for a win as anyone else and won’t concede victory no matter how bad their record is.
Now only if they could just spell their team name correctly on their jerseys.
Swept by the fish at home, then swept the Phils on the road. Nobody in the starting rotation who you could have known would be there back in April, and a bullpen with only one pitcher whom you can say has pitched well consistently this year. I'm aging quickly here, but you can't say it isn't interesting.
Is Rod quietly turning into J.P.s best signing of the past few seasons?
Love the Simpsons pic!
Yesterday was a little scary from a coaching standpoint because they literally almost ran out of pitchers. It reminded me of that situation last year at the All-Star game where Terry Francona was left with Scott Kazmir to finish the game.
Matthias, I think Barajas is up there as one of the better free agent signings of the past few years. Anyone else I can think of (like Scutaro or Downs) were all aquired by trades initially, so that rules them out.
In Rod we trust!
Matt Stairs on a minor league contract for 2007 turned out pretty well. Overall value to the team is less, but so was the cost.