The Toronto Blue Jays left the Windy City and arrived in Arlington, Texas to face the Rangers in a four -game series. Game one of the series started off in favor of Texas. The Rangers scored first in the bottom of the second thanks to a Nelson Cruz solo shot, but Melky Cabrera hit an RBI single to tie the game in the top of the 3rd inning. The teams stayed in a 1-1 deadlock tie until the top of the eighth where the Blue Jays took the lead on an Edwin Encarnacion 2-RBI double, which was all the Jays would need as they would win 3-1
Esmil Rogers pitched a great game going 7.0 innings with 5 hits and a run against him with just one strikeout, but he earned his second win of the season. Casey Janssen would get his 14th save of the season. Yu Darvish had a much better game against the Jays striking out 9 batters with only 3 hits and 1 run against, which lead to a “no decision”, while Neal Cotts would get credit for the loss.
The second game of this series was all Blue Jays as they flattened the Texas Rangers, 8-0. Colby Rasmus hit a three-run homerun in the top of the 4th inning, and JP Arencibia added a solo homer in the same inning and the Jays never looked back. The Blue Jays would pile up a few more runs throughout the game as well, to make it 8-0.
Mark Buehrle was in fine form, going 7.0 innings strong with 4 hits and no runs against and 7 strikeouts. Buehrle won his third game of the season and showed his true form and reminded everyone why his was so dominant in Chicago all those years, lets hope he keeps up the good work. Justin Grimm was on the losing side of this game and probably wishes he never pitched this game. Grimm pitched 7.2 innings, but he had 10 hits and 7 runs against him striking out 4 – not the greatest game ever by the young pitcher.
Toronto continued their winning ways in the third game of the series against the Rangers. Adam Lind continued swinging the hot bat in this game by hitting a two-run home run in the top of the first. The top of the fourth inning, Colby Rasmus hit a two-run homer as well. The homer drove in Lind making the game 4-0 in favor of Toronto. Rangers tried coming back in the sixth inning, but they only mustered one run and that would be their only run of the game. The Blue Jays scored two more runs in the top of the ninth en route to a 6-1 win.
RA Dickey had a much better game than he did in Chicago, this time he only surrendered 1 run and 7 hits. He struck out three in 5.2 innings on route to win his sixth game of the season. The young pitcher Josh Lindbolm earned the loss this game in 6.0 innings with 5 hits and 4 runs against only striking out 2.
With the series officially won by Toronto, the Jays looked to sweep the Rangers in the fourth game of the series. For the first time this season the Blue Jays swept a series that consisted 3 games or more. Toronto won the final game of the series 7-2 and pushed their winning streak to 5 in a row.
Chien-Ming Wang pitched perfectly scattering 7 hits against with 7.0 innings pitched; he had no runs against him and struck out five which earned him his first win of the season as a Blue Jay. Derek Holland pitched for Texas and went 6.0 innings with 10 hits, 4 runs against with 6 strikeouts, Holland would earn his fourth loss of the season.
JP Arencibia starting the scoring in the top of the second with a two-run homerun the top of the fourth, and Colby Rasmus hit a solo shot to make the score 3-0 in favor of Toronto. The Blue Jays would score 4 more runs in the top of the seventh inning, and Texas would only get their runs in the bottom of the ninth. By that point it was too late.
Toronto is now four games under 500 and only 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot. The Jays have played 68 games and have 94 games left this season a lot of good things can happen in that span of time and with the Jays playing 8-2 baseball in the last ten games, who knows what can happen. Stay tuned Jays fans – it ain’t over!
Nicks Notes:
I think Josh Hamilton is confused as to what a baseball town is. Yes, Texas is a football state, but when you have 32,013, 37,203, 33,121, 44,052 fans show up for a Jays-Rangers four-game series, I’m pretty sure these fans enjoy baseball a lot.
Brendan Morrow still has a bit of work to do in his rehab in Florida and he will not be on the mound anytime soon. It is nice to know that when he comes back the rotation will have some more stability and having a guy like Esmil Rogers in the pen and hopefully Wang can keep up the good work.
Speaking of rehab, Jose Reyes is making good strides in his comeback and could possibly play in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will not force Kawasaki off the Blue Jays he is a new fan favorite and I think its safe to say Toronto fans would be very upset if he does not stay on the team.
Adam Lind continued to swing that hot bat again in this series against the Rangers and Colby Rasmus helped big time in this series. Linds numbers looked like this 7-17, 4 runs scored, 6 RBI’s, two homeruns with a 350 average, has this guy turned it around or what?
Colby Rasmus hit 3 homeruns against the Rangers with 6 RBI’s, of course many players contributed in this series and made it really fun to watch!
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