Vernon Wells has a taste for the dramatic after all. Following a moving tribute to his long standing work in the Toronto community and a stadning ovation of appreciation, Wells went out and took a sledghammer to the hearts of the Blue Jay faithful by crushing a home run to key the Angels victory. Scoff all you want, but I believe that this sort of thing means something to players and Vernon will now breathe a lot easier for the rest of the series.
— Nice to see Russell Branyan get some run. After his three run shot off Mariano yesterday, it was a nice change of pace for Scioscia to give him a start at first. Branyan responded with a double that led to a run. Hopefully this will lead to a line-up with Branyan as the DH and Trumbo playing first to save us from the soul sucking crappiness of Bobby Abreu. That’s right, old Bob had another hitless night. But hey, he drew a walk so by all means keep hitting him 3rd. That makes a ton of sense.
— I have said this before but after his first inning highlight double play I will say it again. If Erick Aybar doesn’t win a gold glove I will be forced to go on some sort of three state killing spree. Oh, who am I kidding, that dude from Cleveland with the freaky first name is going to win. Baseball writers still don’t know they play baseball west of the Rockies.
— Having sung his defensive praises, we must also speak of Aybar at the plate. Another 0-4 night raises concern over just how long his slump will last. Aybar is hacking away like a blind lumberkack and needs to bat somewhere else in the line-up. But the leadoff options are getting thinner and thinner by the day.
— Ervin Santana did not have his best stuff and still controlled the Jays easily. I am amazed at the maturity he has developed over the past couple of months. It’s like he woke up one morning a whole different person. He got a ton of ground balls and never seemed rattled at any point against a tought Toronto line-up.
Halo Hero
Welcome home!!! Now just keep up hitting those dingers for another 43 games and we might be on to something.
Game Notes