Stick it out, and the runs will come

Toronto Blue Jays 3 - Tampa Bay Rays 5

Continuing my day-behind blogging for the week, last night I watched Wednesday night's game - the second of the three at Disney. I imagine I shall watch the series finale this afternoon unless I get a mad rush on at work, and jot down something on that this evening.

So, Wednesday's game, and Roy Halliday on the mound for the Jays. Pitching superbly, which is, well, what you'd expect from him really. He breezed through the first five innings, allowing just 3 hits, and only throwing about 50 pitches. He looked really on form. And by the time the Rays came to bat in the 6th, Matt Stairs had given him a 3-run lead to work with, with a pair of homeruns.

But, the 2008 Rays are nothing if not battling. Bottom of the 6th, a double from Navvy and a single from Bartlett, and Carl Crawford comes to the plate with one out and runners on the corners. A single from him, pushing his hit-streak to 10, and the Rays are on the board. Upton walks, loading the bases, and Pena strikes out. Step forward Evan Longoria. He's up to the task, and slaps a 2-RBI single. Tie game. Next up is Eric Hinske, who has been swinging a really hot bat lately. He makes contact again, a single, scoring Upton and giving the Rays the lead. Stringing good at-bats together. Thats what I like to see.

The scoring was rounded off in the 8th, as CC hit a lead-off triple (amazingly his first of the season!), and scored on a sacrifice fly from BJ Upton.

On the mound, Jason Hammel more than matched the hitters in the battling stakes. Six strong innings, in which he only gave up 4 hits - the only downside being that two of them were round-trippers for Stairs, resulting in three runs. He did walk four Jays, but all-in-all he did very well, and certainly won't have harmed his chances of keeping a spot in the rotation. The majors' best bullpen (I know!! I'm making the most of that while I can!) shut the game down for him, Dan Wheeler pitching two scoreless innings, and Troy Percival getting the save for the second night in a row with a perfect ninth.

That's the first two from Disney, I hope we did well last night - but either way I shall be writing about it just as soon as I know!