It's All Happening: Hutchison Bailed Out By Massive Offense



Drew Hutchison had a rough first inning (three runs), then seemed to settle down a little for a few innings, which turned out to be precarious, because an error at first and a non-call on a strike to Joe Mauer seemed to send the Hutch-mobile into a ditch, which then caught fire.

I don't know what's wrong with Hutchison, other than the lack of fastball command which makes him have to throw a lot more pitches than he should. It means that even his decent starts (where he is commanding the strike zone and pitching with some authority) end in about the 5th inning.

He also may have been dropping his elbow in the early innings. It's a mechanical problem more in danger in becoming a mental one and nobody seems to know what the hell to do about it. I feel bad for Hutch because he's, by all accounts, a hard worker who wants to win and it can't be easy to be struggling like this when the rest of the team is soaring.

Speaking of soaring, the Jays offense still managed to get Hutchison the win because they are awesome. All the runs were scored via the homer, including a magnificent grand slam by Jose Bautista.
Bautista just completely impressed himself on that. Also impressive was Edwin Encarnacion, who has been stealthly red-hot since the All Star Break batting .321 (17-for-53) with five doubles, one homer, three RBIs, nine runs and 12 walks since play resumed. The five doubles are especially promising because EE sometimes hits a lot of doubles right before he goes on one of his unconcious homer parades.

“Those four days were very good for me because I wasn’t 100 per cent with injuries in my groin and shoulder,” Encarnacion says in an interview with Shi Davidi. “Now I feel ready, I feel good and I can let it go.”

“Yeah, I had to try not to do too much,” he said. “I’ve been swinging at the ball too hard and that’s not the way I swing. I try to stay short, that’s what I’ve been trying to do the last couple of weeks, after the all-star game it’s been working more for me.”

I think the fact that the offense is this good without Encarnacion and Bautista being 100% is kind of ridiculous. In the best possible way.

Other news that dropped yesterday was that Marcus Stroman has starting throwing off a mound as of yesterday, may get into rehab games on August 21st and is still hoping to come to the party come September. Some people are already trying to slot Stroman into the rotation (ha!), but if he shows up at all, Stroman would be an arm in the 'pen.

“We don’t sit here and look at it like, ‘OK, he’s going to come to the rescue, save the day,’ ” Gibbons said. “It’s his goal. We’re on board if he can pull it off. But we’re not going to do anything stupid either.”

 Our new best friend David Price is now calling us "Fellow Canadians":

Yelling Sabathia a million times does not explain the lack of fear, Stephen A. Smith, you idiot.
Also, Josh Donaldson has nearly as many homers as Mark Teixeira. Also, shut up.

I've decided just to take all the cheating accusations as the joke they are. It's really, really funny. There should be more coming this weekend with the big series in the Bronx.

David Price dunked Jose Bautista in a dunk tank for charity. Awesome.
Finally, I was on Definitely Not the Jays Talk this week, talking the big trade deadline. So if you are dying to hear my voice, here is your shot.