RELATIVELY LITTLE FUSS
Two home runs for Morales as Blue Jays win Game 1 of the battle of AL East basement
No Blue Jays fans, your team can’t face the Baltimore Orioles every night. But what a lark it would be.
Riding the big bat of designated hitter Kendrys
Morales — who banged out a pair of home runs Monday at the Rogers Centre — the Jays cruised to a relatively stressfree 5-3 win over the AL East weaklings.
How completely inept are the Orioles, who fell to 37-88, an odiferous 51 games below .500? The Jays have now won eight in a row at the dome against the Orioles and are a ridiculous 10-1 against manager Buck Showalter’s team this season.
Against the rest of the AL East? The Jays are a miserable 10-31 and the first of three between these two underachievers is certainly illustrative of the wide gap between the beasts and the leasts of the division.
Speaking of beasts though, it was an impressive display by Morales, who hit balls out of the park for the 15th and 16th time this season. The first, a slop shot in the fourth cleared the wall in right field despite the big Cuban’s bat breaking on contact.
The switch-hitter’s second blast was even more impressive, a towering 437-foot shot that went to the second deck in right and was clocked at 437 feet.
There was just enough offence to make up for a middling effort from Marco
Estrada, who lasted 5.1 innings but scattered seven hits and walked three more in the three runs he allowed.
Estrada, of course, is potential trade bait as the Aug. 31 deadline for adding playoff eligible players to rosters and may attract some lukewarm interest from teams who remember his playoff success in the past.
It’s expected that the veteran, who is due to be a free agent this summer, will get one more start/audition prior to the deadline.
And finally the cleanup work of closer Ken Giles continued as he improved to a perfect 16-for-16 in save situations this season and 4-for-4 with the Jays.
MEMORIES FOR JANSEN
The magic moments keep on coming for Jays rookie catcher Danny Jansen, who seems to make special memories with every game he plays.
On Monday, he kept his unblemished big-league hitting streak alive with a fourth-inning double giving him a knock in all six games he’s played.
But earlier in the night there was another incredible moment for the young pro when Orioles veteran Adam
Jones came to the plate for the first time. Put it this way, if Jansen had something annoying to say to Jones, it wouldn’t have been the first time.
At 33, Jones may be 10 years Jansen’s senior but the two got to know each other way back in 2004 when the veteran was an 18-year-old with the single-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.
Jansen’s parents were a host family or billet for young players and a very young Danny apparently couldn’t get enough of the future fivetime all star.
“Reunited with my old host family @D_Jansen31,” Jones tweeted to his 541,000 Twitter followers. “So proud of you pimp. From waking me up at 7 a.m. before you had to school and me getting in at 4 a.m. from a looong bus trip to playing against each other in the show !!!! This is a Movie.”
When we spoke with Jansen in Washington at the MLB all star Futures Game, he fondly recalled those times with his family back in Appleton, Wisc. and how being around pro players fostered his love for the game.
Jansen is certainly loving it now, including his first home game as a Jay on Monday. The two-out double he belted in the fourth inning on Monday extended his hitting streak to at least one in all six major league games he’s played.
Four of those have been for extra bases and his streak is the third longest in club history for a player starting his MLB career. Only Jesse
Barfield and Ryan Goins with eight apiece have gone longer.
SIZING SANCHEZ
Depending on the post mortem from his start in Portland, Maine on Monday night, there’s a strong chance
Aaron Sanchez will return to the Jays rotation on Saturday.
Making his third rehab start since recovering from the bruise on his index finger suffered in Anaheim on June 22, Sanchez went 4.1 innings and threw 86 pitches for the double A New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
Sanchez allowed six hits and walked four but that line is somewhat misleading considering two of the hits were on rollers past the mound that given what he’s rehabbing the pitcher wisely opted not to field barehanded.
It was surely a welcome change of scenery for Sanchez, who has been in Florida since the injury where he pitched his first two rehab starts. He was also reunited with New Hampshire manager John Schneider, who Sanchez played for in the Gulf Coast League a number of years ago.
“For a rehab start, we want to make sure Sanchy is in a good place and getting his work in as well,” Schneider told Fisher Cats radio. “We’re doing what’s best of the big club always but Sanchy is such a good dude. He’s going to treat it as if it was a start in Toronto and give everything he has to win the game.”
GAME ON
The first six of the seven total Jays hits on Monday were for extra bases including a pair of doubles from centre-fielder Kevin Pillar … A fourth-inning walk by Jays third baseman Russell Martin extended his on-base streak to 16, the second longest in his career … Yes Jays attendance is down significantly this season but explain this one — a strong Monday night crowd of 25,031 was on hand to see the Jays face a team that opened the night 50 games below .500 … The two-dinger night marked the 22nd multi-homer game in Morales’ career.