DUNEDIN, FLA– The Toronto Blue Jays kicked off their pre-season schedule with several solid performances in a 7-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.
Brett Lawrie — despite a first-inning fielding error — drove in four runs and Eric Thames homered to left in the first shot fired in the battle for the starting left field job with Travis Snider.
On the mound, Brett Cecil started for the Blue Jays and the slimmed-down lefty looked sharp, even if it was just for one inning and there were no radar gun readings available to gauge his much-talked about velocity.
Another young pitcher looking to rebound in 2012, Kyle Drabek started the second inning for Toronto and he too looked impressive, displaying a lively fastball and the new, compact delivery he and the Blue Jays coaching staff continue to work on refining.
The two teams will meet again Sunday afternoon in Bradenton with Aaron Laffey getting the start for Toronto. Henderson Alvarez was scheduled to start, but the Blue Jays decided to give him an extra day of rest before he faces Justin Verlander and the Detroit Tigers on Monday in Lakeland.
Canadian Erik Bedard is scheduled to start Sunday for the Pirates.
In case you missed the game, here’s a recap of our running, live blog from this afternoon:
Middle of 1st, Blue Jays 0, Pirates 0: Solid start for Brett Cecil and the Blue Jays. Cecil mowed down the first two batters, getting No. 2 hitter Clint Barmes to fan on a wicked off-speed pitch. It should have been a 1-2-3 inning, but Brett Lawrie botched a routine grounder from third allowing Neil Walker to reach base. Lawrie followed that up by retiring Casey McGehee – with a high throw to first.
Bottom of 1st, Blue Jays 0, Pirates 0: Blue Jays gown down in order to James McDonald and the Pirates. Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson grounded out to short and second respectively before Jose Bautista struck out.
Middle of 2nd, Blue Jays 0, Pirates 0: Kyle Drabek in for the Blue Jays. Yamaico Navarro reached on a throwing error from Yunel Escobar and reached second base on a steal, but was stranded there after Drabek managed to catch Pirates left-fielder looking for the third out. Drabek had great pop on his fastball and looked – mostly – in control of his new delivery.
End of 2, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 0: Adam Lind leads off with a four-pitch walk. Edwin Encarnacion follows with a broken-bat single to left. Rasmus just misses beating out a hot-shot to first base, runners advance. Lawrie doubles to left-centre on first pitch, scores two. Thames pops out to centre. Lawrie steals third without a throw. Arencibia flies out to centre.
Middle of 3, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 0: Big right-hander Jim Hoey in for Toronto. Punches out cathcer Michael McHenry with nasty breaking ball down and away. Tabata grounds out to short and Barmes flies out to left for an easy 1-2-3 inning.
End of 3, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 0: Escobar and Johnson fly out to left. Bautista strikes out swinging. Water bottle tracker: On to No 4. It’s hot.<br.
Middle of 4, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 0: Canadian Scott Richmond on the hill for the Blue Jays. He gets Walker to line out to first and then McGehee to ground out to short. Rasmus then smoothly tracks down a long fly in centre off the bat of Navarro to retire to side.
End of 4, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 0: Lind lines out to second. McLouth robs Encarnacion of a hit with a nice sliding catch in centre. Rasmus works Chris Resop for a two-out walk. Lawrie flies out to centre.
Middle of 5, Blue Jays 2, Pirates 1: Side-armer Danny Farquhar in for the Blue Jays and he proceeds to plunk Nate McLouth. Fox then grounds to Lawrie, who starts a slick 5-4-3 double play. Pirates left-fielder Gorkys Hernandez singles to right — yep — the Pirates’ first hit of the afternoon. On the next pitch, Hernandez steals second and then scores on McKenry’s RBI single to right. Brandon Boggs — pinch-hitting for Jose Tabata — flies out to Rasmus to end the inning.
End of 5, Blue Jays 3, Pirates 1: Eric Thames fires the first salvo in the battle for the starting left-field job by going deep over the wall in left on the first pitch he sees. Arencibia, Escobar and Johnson follow by striking out, all swinging.
Middle of 6, Blue Jays 3, Pirates 1: Ryan Tepera on the hill for Toronto with Omar Vizquel taking over at short, Mike McCoy at second and Yan Gomes (non-roster invitee) behind the plate. Tepera hits leadoff batter Josh Harrison. Thames records the first out with a somewhat-adventurous catch of a liner in left (there are some strong gusts out here). Nick Evans strikes out, but Harrison advances to second. Following a walk to Jeremy Farrell (son of Jays manager John), Jose Bautista fights the wind but manages to hold onto a flyball off the bat of pinch-hitter Starling Marte.
Brett Cecil was asked if he was happy to have first step out of way: “Step 1 was underway in November,” he quipped.
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) March 3, 2012
End of 6, Blue Jays 6, Pirates 1: Jose Bautista leads off with a single up the middle. Lind flies out to centre. Encarnacion gets hit in the back prompting Farrell to call on Ben Francisco as a pinch-runner. Rasmus strikes out looking. Lawrie sinking liner to centre falls in, scoring Bautista and Francisco with a two-run double. Lawrie exits with warm applause (and a four-RBI day) in favour of Jonathan Diaz (non-roster invitee). Thames blooper to left scores Diaz. Gomes singles to right. Vizquel pops up to first to end the inning.
Middle of 7, Blue Jays 6, Pirates 1: Jerry Gil (non-roster invitee) on the mound for Toronto with Travis Snider taking over in left-field, Anthony Gose in centre-field, Mike McDade at first base, Jonathan Diaz at third base and Moises Sierra in right-field. First impression of Gil: BIG presence on the mound. Listed as 6’3″, 210 but from this perch he looks much bigger vertically AND horizontally. Gil retires the first two batters before defensive wizard Diaz flashes some leather at third by making a nice diving stab and throw to end the inning.
End of 7, Blue Jays 7, Pirates 1: Mike McCoy leads off and becomes the fourth man this afternoon — by my count — to be assaulted by a baseball. McCoy advances to second after the wind knocks down a Moises Sierra fly ball to right for a base hit. McDade flies out to left. Ben Francisco singles to left, scoring McCoy with Sierra advancing to third. Gose strikes out looking. Diaz grounds out to third on a close play at first. Wonder if the ump has an afternoon tee time?
Middle of 8, Blue Jays 7, Pirates 1: Lefty Luis Perez in for the Blue Jays. He’s out of options, so he’s a guy to keep an eye on as camp progresses. Should he falter, young Evan Crawford could give him a run for his money as the second lefty in the Jays’ bullpen behind Darren Oliver. Boggs grounds out to third to begin the inning. Perez walks Harison and then Hernandez grounds into a fielder’s choice. Following a wild pitch, Perez gets a strikeout to end the inning.
End of 8, Blue Jays 7, Pirates 1: Travis Snider — swinging at the first pitch — grounds out to first. Gomes strikes out looking. Vizquel goes down swinging.
Final, Blue Jays 7, Pirates 1: Joel Carreno in for the Jays to close things out. Following a long battle with Jeremy Farrell (again, yes, John’s boy) Carreno gets him looking on a nasty, 3-2 slider. Following a Marte double to left and a pop-out to centre by Matt Hague, outfielder Robbie Grossman gounded out to Diza at third to end the game.
Thanks for following along folks. Check back here in a bit for Shi Davidi’s post-game column and selected quotes from Blue Jays players.<br.
We’ll be live blogging again on MLB Mashup Sunday from Bradenton at 1 p.m. ET when these two teams go at it again. Sportsnet 590 The Fan will have the call on radio.
