Hey! New Guy!
He bunts, he turns double plays, he hauls down line drives, and he even twirls his bat in the batter’s box. Welcome the new guy, Yunel Escobar.
He didn’t take very long to make his impression on the team either, as Escobar looked very comfortable out there both on the field and at the dish.
He even decided to take matters into his own hands on his very first at bat as a Blue Jay, bunting for a single. Cito Gaston later admitted that he didn’t call for that play and Escobar just did it on his own. Way to be proactive, Yuney!
ADVERTISEMENT
Not to be overshadowed, Ricky Romero was back in fine form after being roughed up his two previous starts where he gave up 13 runs in just 5 innings combined. Nothing like a start against the lowly Baltimore Orioles to cure what ails the soul.
And not to get too ahead of myself here, but with his 3 hits against the Orioles, Aaron Hill’s batting average climbed back up to .196. If he continues hitting like this, Hill could finally climb back over the Mendoza Line for the first time since May 6th.
Again, nothing like the OrioLOLs to help break a player out of their funk.
I'm a huge Escobar fan already. Really fun to watch.
RR has me worried. His great games come against weak teams and bad ones against good teams. Please feel
free to correct me on that, but without looking anything up that seems to be the trend.
Romero pitched his first career complete game shutout with only 5 hits allowed against the AL-west leading Texas Rangers (they were leading when he did it as well, not just now) and they're not a weak team.
There was also the game the Jays won against the Yankees in extra innings in which he only allowed two runs, the same as Pettitte.
So no, not the trend.
Mattt, sadp, I remember both of those games very vividly – especially the one in extras against the Yankees.
We all knew Romero has great stuff, he just needed a rebound girl (albeit not that great a looking one) to get him back on track. And that rebound just so happened to be the Orioles.
I'm very happy to be wrong. Thanks for that sadp…
I want to be as enthusiastic about Alex Gonzalez as you guys are about Yunel Escobar. But the Braves did take one of my favorites and punt him as hard as they could across the border. All the reports of having a nasty attitude and all that are crap. I hate the Braves beat journalists; they're total dicks and don't know what they're talking about–and drama mongers on top of it.
Lucky for me, I'm a Blue Jays fan, too, so I can still root for Yunie without feeling guilty. 🙂
Hey Alison, thanks for commenting! I had a feeling those reports about Escobar were blown way of of proportion (as they almost always are).
Things can get lost in translation and it's easy to write somebody off as having a "bad attitude" when they can't convey their feelings 100%. I guess it's the same scenario with Escobar, and it's too bad for the Braves that it had to come to that.
But on the same token, Atlanta is getting a great defensive shortstop, and hopefully he'll help contribute offensively in the second half as well. I'd love to see the Braves make the playoffs this year, and couldn't think of a better way for Bobby Cox to ride out into the sunset.
It always helps when you're a fan of both teams too – and don't worry, we'll take good care of him!