"Why yes, yes it was."It was the third straight start that Jesse "Robin" Litsch got an unearned run because of the bad defence backing him up. Fortunately, this time it was only one and he still got the W. With a shaky start, including an error charged to Ray Olmedo (although replays showed that the runner was still out despite Olmedo dropping the ball) Litsch gave up two runs and we all thought, "fuck, not again." Litsch being the soldier-figure he is took it like a man and settled down right away.
It was a totally different story for the Angels' starter Ervin Santana... the very same Santana that nearly got traded for the Jays' lone all-star Alex Rios. Santana started strong but melted down later to straighten his numbers out and put up a nice 5 on the board to raise his ERA above 6.00.
Admittedly, I wasn't confident about this game. Not only was my least favourite starter on the mound (I still like him though, just not as much as the other four) but my two favourite players, Rios and McDonald, got the day off. The fill-ins did great though; Matty Stairs and Ray Olmedo. Matt Stairs provided the much-needed run support for Litsch and Olmedo provided the defence, although he did make an error to give Litsch an unearned run for the third straight start.
Stairs belted a 2-run double into the right-centre field gap in the fifth, and immediately after advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on the air-mailed throw of C Ryan Budde. Olmedo made a number of great defensive plays, the first was in the first where he dropped the ball and still managed to beat ther unner to the bag, but because the first-base-umpire missed the call and Olmedo got charged with an error. He also made a play where he took a sharply hit ball on the backhand and spun around to throw out the runner. The big play was in the seventh when Maicer Izturis was on second and 1B Quinlan grounded to Olmedo. Being the daredevil-risky-yet-confident guy Olmedo is he threw to third to get Quinlan for the second out. The next batter, Ryan Budde, singled.
Also, Zaun had a brand new stylish blue chest protector. Oh Zaun, you do impress.
The Good
The defence was finally effective behind Litsch and so was the offense. One of those rare road games where everything actually worked.
Litsch pitched a great game, going six and a third allowing only 2 earnies for his 5th win of the season/ his career. Despite a shaky start loaded with bad control of his cutter (his best pitch) Litsch settled down quickly to shut down the Angels.
Fuck effective, the defence was finger-lickin-good. Not only was The Wizard Johnny Mac's replacement, Olmedo great defensively but so was Aaron Hill-- which we haven't seen much of lately. Troy Glaus even made a great play or two... Reed Johnson also made a bonerific play in left where he dove and spread out completely to take away extra bases from Garrett Anderson.
V-Dub, Stairs and Overbay each got doubles, extending the team's doubles-streak to 30 games. If somebody doubles in tonights game they will tie the team record.
The Bad
I don't see why Troy was in the lineup, he's obviously still in pain, he limped back to the dugout when he grounded out.
The Ugly
Really just Litsch's rough start, but he did settle down which was pretty.
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