Lind, Reyes Power Blue Jays Over Reds

Jo-Jo Reyes looked great again on Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds, as the Toronto Blue Jays are back at .500 with a 3-2 victory in interleague play.

Reyes was on his game right from the first pitch. He got ahead of the majority of the Reds hitters and retired every first batter in his 6.1 innings of work. When you are able to pitch ahead and keep the lead-off hitter off the bases, you are going to be successful. The only blips in his game tonight were the two solo home runs he surrendered. Although, the first one which came from Reds’ centre fielder, Drew Stubbs, should have been caught. There was some confusion in right-centre field between Corey Patterson and Jose Bautista. Both Blue Jays fielders were calling for the fly ball and neither came up with the ball and allowed Stubbs to score on his inside-the-park home run. It was Patterson’s ball being the centre fielder; he has first priority on any fly ball in his vicinity. But, I understand why Bautista wanted to take control of the fly ball, considering how poorly Patterson has been throughout the season on fly balls close to the wall (though this one way just shy of the warning track).

Reyes has now won three of his last four starts and improves his record to 3-5 on the season. He even added a hit at the plate in the sixth (which was only the second of the night for Toronto at that point).

After the mental error between Patterson and Bautista, they teamed up in the seventh for some redemption. Patterson led off the inning by getting hit by the first pitch and stole second with Bautista up 2-0 in the count. The Blue Jays home run leader showed some patience at the plate after seeing pitches all on the outside corner and drills a RBI double to centre to tie the game at 1-1. Next batter, Adam Lind, on the very next pitch, crushes a two-run home run to centre field and put the Blue Jays up 3-2 and ended up being the game-winning hit.  Since coming off the disabled list, Lind has been on fire with eight home runs and has homered now in four consecutive games, only behind Jose Cruz Jr. who set the franchise record with six straight games back in 2001.

The bullpen was finally on their game tonight and preserved the win for Reyes. Octavio Dotel stranded a pair of inherited runners in the seventh and pitched a perfect two-thirds of the eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts.  Frank Francisco only gave up one hit and struck out a pair for his seventh save of the season. The ‘pen has been over-worked this year with the starters not getting deep into games and the Blue Jays relievers have had their struggles recently, so this performance will hopefully be the confidence boost that they need to get back on track (Marc Rzepczynski retired Joey Votto in eighth on two pitches).

Notables

TOR
J. Bautista: 2-for-4; 2B, RBI
A. Lind: 1-for-4; HR, 2 RBI

CIN
S. Rolen: 1-for-4; HR, RBI
J. Gomes: 2-for-3; 2 singles

Pitching lines:
Jo-Jo Reyes (W, 3-5): 6.1 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 2 HR, 92 pitches
M. Leake (L, 6-3): 7.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 99 pitches
F. Francisco (S, 7)

Game two of the three game series goes tomorrow night at 7 p.m. Brandon Morrow (2-4, 5.63) is on the hill for Toronto and faces Edison Volquez (4-2, 5.48).

Until next time,

Let’s Go Blue Jays!

Twitter: @ChaseHadden