Long Ball Parade

There are times in baseball when you think that there is no possible way that what you are watching is actually unfolding before your eyes. Last night was one of those instances where I was convinced there was an anomaly in the baseball Matrix.

First off, Vernon Wells hits a home run; that’s the first sign that something fishy is going on. Then Alex Rios hits a home run. At this point the machines have caught on. But then the strangest thing of all is that Marco Scutaro hits not one but two home runs in the same game. That’s when the baseball Matrix officially raised its hands in defeat and said “I give up, you figure it out”.

The long ball has been an element of the Blue Jays gameplay that has dropped off significantly since the first part of the season. In fact, home runs have been so hard to come by for the Blue Jays lately that prior to the five home runs hit last night, the Jays had only hit five home runs over the course of the past eleven games.

Ricky Romero didn’t have his best stuff, but he wasn’t completely bad either. RR Cool Jay wasn’t his usual self and actually hasn’t been very dependable in the month of July as a whole. In his four starts, Romero has a 5.25 ERA with 16 walks so it’s apparent he’s had some control issues lately.

Thanks to a giant outpouring of run support, all of that really didn’t matter for Romero because he was credited with the win anyway. Ten runs and five home runs by the Blue Jays in one game; I still can’t believe it. I think it’ll probably take a few days for that to set in.