Mark Buehrle outlasts Jake Peavy

By John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press

 

TORONTO - Mark Buehrle doesn't care how many hits he gives up as long as he's keeping runs off the scoreboard.

The Blue Jays' starting pitcher gave up 10 hits over seven innings but allowed just one run on Thursday as Toronto edged Boston 2-1 for its second win in a row.

"Sometimes it's frustrating because they hit the crap out of the ball on their outs and then they don't hit it pretty hard and they find holes," said Buehrle. "But look, it was a great game. We came back late.

"You try to throw up zeroes as long as you can and try to give your offence a chance and that's exactly what happened tonight."

The win improved Buehrle's record to 9-7 and snapped a four-game losing streak against the Red Sox that dates back to 2009.

"I know I've struggled against them," said the veteran left-hander. "You've got to have everything going your way. You got to have runs scored for you, you got to have defence behind you, bullpen's got to save the lead.

"Again, a win's a win. Don't really matter against who it is. A win's a win, it feels good."

Toronto (56-65) struggled to get hits off Boston starter Jake Peavy (9-5). He struck out four and gave up two runs, one earned, on five hits over six innings of work.

The Red Sox (72-51) had no trouble getting on base, but struggled to bring home their runners, stranding 12 on base. Dustin Pedroia and Daniel Nava led Boston with three hits each.

"Tonight, the story is left on base. We created a number of opportunities," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "I thought we had a very good approach against Buehrle to build those opportunities, and then he made a number of quality pitches with men in scoring position."

Peavy was in firm control for the first six innings of the game, giving up just two hits and striking out four as Boston held on to a 1-0 lead.

But the Blue Jays figured Peavy out in the seventh. Jose Bautista earned an infield single when Will Middlebrooks misplayed the ball at third base. Edwin Encarnacion's single up the middle then advanced Bautista to second.

Brett Lawrie drove Bautista home with another single to centre field, advancing Encarnacion to third with no outs. read more

Blue Jays lose 5-1 to Oakland A’s

J.A. Happ tossed his best game of the season, a triumph on its own, but the Jays couldn’t build on it enough to beat the Oakland A’s.

Happ gave up three hits over seven innings and should have easily had the win against Oakland in a matinee contest before an announced crowd of 36,111 at the Rogers Centre.

But the A’s, after giving up a 1-0 lead in the eighth, came back to score four runs in the ninth and take a 5-1 decision over Toronto.

Alberto Callaspo, who made an error in the Jays’ eighth to allow the game-tying run, slapped a two-run double off Jays closer Casey Janssen in the ninth for the go ahead runs. read more

By: Mark Zwolinski Sports reporter

A's beat the Jays

Whoah! I almost missed the game today! I didn't know that the game will gonna starts early because usually if it's weekdays it's around 7pm. It was bottom 8th inning when I opened the tv and the score was 1 Oakland and 0 Toronto. But the Blue Jays scored 1 at the end of 8th inning. But when the A's turn in the 9th inning whoa! Jannsen was the pitcher and the too bad to say that the A's scored 4. Well,  AGAIN! A's beat our Jays.

Jays Loss to A's Again

Everyday I'm always excited when the Toronto Blue Jays has a game. The first inning up to 5 innings is important for them because it set the game phase. What I didn't expect was when how R.A Dickey pitched. It was really a  great start for the Jays, not until Oliver came. It was on the 7th inning I think when the Oakland scored 3 in just 1 inning. Well, in the end Toronto Blue Jays loss to Oakland Athletes again.

R.A. Dickey sees Progress

TORONTO - R.A. Dickey wasn't satisfied with his no-decision Sunday or the Toronto Blue Jays' loss to the Oakland Athletics, but the 2012 National League Cy Young Award-winner saw improvement from previous starts at Rogers Centre.

Dickey allowed three earned runs on six hits in seven innings as he tried some different things at a ballpark that has been a house of horrors for him this season.

The knuckleball-throwing right-hander got six strikeouts and stayed out of trouble most of the time when he kept pitches down in the zone.

"I really tried to abbreviate my stride and throw a knuckleball that would end up down, rather than a lot of times I try to put away guys with a high knuckleball, which has worked for me," Dickey said. "I was able to locate some balls down that I really tried, consciously, to do, and I was able to do it with good results. That was one thing.

"Two, I felt like I changed speeds a little bit more today throughout the range of knuckleballs that I usually throw. That was helpful."

Dickey entered the game with a 5.97 earned-run average at home. He vowed after his most recent home start to use the rest of the season to figure out ways to pitch better at Rogers Centre.
Even though Brandon Moss' home run in the sixth was the 19th Dickey gave up in 13 starts in Toronto, the 38-year-old called this an outing from which he can grow.
"I thought he did a nice job," manager John Gibbons said. "He gave us seven innings; it was a tight ballgame. He did his job."

Dickey considers it his job to give his team a chance to win. Until the sixth, it looked like he would be able to steal the game, but then Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Donaldson and Moss connected on pitches.
The knuckleball had helped him get through five scoreless innings. read more


By Stephen Whyno, The Canadian Press

Great Game for Jays!

Last night games was pretty awesome. It's been a long time since I have seen a great game from Blue Jays. At first, when I saw that Josh Johnson will be the starting pitcher, I told to myself that there's a big chance that they will lose another game. But it turns out that Blue Jays good. It was first time for me to watched the Seattle Mariners and I really don't know how they play and how strong they are. But it looks like they're starting pitcher, Hernandez was really upset with how the game turns out. Lots of errors not only from one player from Mariners but almost all of them are making an error.

Here in Toronto, the game started at 10pm and my son is already sleeping at that time. Every time that the Blue Jays catches ball from batter, I can't help myself to shout. I remember when Colby Rasmus jump in for the ball  and he didn't allow Mariners for the home run.

Hope that every game of Toronto Blue Jays is like this.

Wear your Sunglasses

Its the 3rd game against Oakland Athletes and I saw that some of the Blue Jays players like Brett Lawrie is having a hard time catching the ball. Hello! your in California and the sun was really up! You should think about that before the game. Good thing that the Jays won the game. There was one incident that the ball was hit by an Oakland player and the ball on the side of Dickey, Lawrie saw it and probably he thinks that Dickey might gonna have a problem seeing the ball because of the sun so there were three Blue Jays player wanting to catch the ball and Dickey bump in to Lawrie. Guys! Why don't you wear your sunglasses! That should be a lesson to all of you. Well, in the end Toronto Blue Jays won the game.