Carlos Villanueva throw 57 pitches over his first 5 innings pitched and had a 4 hit shutout and a 1-0 lead going into the sixth inning as Arron Hill hit his third homer of the season off Bronson Arroyo and it was Arroyo's 17 long ball given up this season and his 165 given up during his 5 + seasons with the Reds which is far and away the run away leader of any pitcher during this time period. In the sixth inning Carlos Villenueva gave up a single to Etobicoke own Joey Votto and with 2 outs Miguel Cairo hit his third homer of the season to give the Reds a 2-1 victory and it was all about Arroyo as he pitched 8 innings of 5 hit ball with the Hill homer being the only run allowed. Even with that line the Jays had their chance against him and it came in the seventh when with a Juan Rivera walk on and 2 outs Edwin Encarnacion came to the plate and even with all he is not Encarnacion still is able to crush a fastball and Arroyo does give them up and even though with a 3-1 count on him he was not looking at fastballs but he was looking at a strike on its way and he watched the first but the second straight curve ball he crushed a ball where the only question was fair or foul and it went inches foul for a very loud foul ball and then he grounded out to end the inning.
After some more struggles from Marc Rzepczynski who faced three batters and with one out he gave up a single to Votto who went 3 for 4 today after going 0 for 8 in the first two games of the series and then a double to Jay Bruce. Then Octavio Dotel came in and struck out Cairo and then he intentionally walked Fred Lewis to load the bases and then got Edgar Renteria lined out to Bautista to end the eighth inning. Then Francisco Cordero came in and replaced Arroyo to close down the game and he faced the heart of the Jays order starting with Jose Bautista who still having problems understanding the umpire's strike zone as he had pitch on the outside corner called a strike and he had to walk away from the plate and collect his thoughts but still was able to a deep to hit a slider but right to center fielder Drew Stubbs and it was not the only pitch he took that he question as he question a curve ball from Arroyo in the fourth that was called strike three but it was still a good pitch to hit. Then Adam Lind came to the plate and grounded out and that was followed by an Arron Hill fly out to end the game to Jay Bruce.
In other news Travis Snider's season has gone from bad to worst as he was hit in the helmet with a fastball on Friday and sustained a concussion and it maybe serious as he is still feeling the side effects of it. Jesse Litsch pitched his first 2 innings in quite a while last night and gave up 3 runs with 2 earned on 3 hits with a walk to go along with 3 Ks in a start with the Lansing Lugnuts of class A ball. While Brett Cecil pitched last night as well and he gave up 4 runs with 3 of them being earned on 7 hits but did strike out 9 batters while walking 2 over 7 innings pitched and with every strong outing he is getting closer and closer to rejoining the Jays. While in his first triple A start with some extra rest Kyle Drabek today did what he did in the majors by walking 7 batters and 8 hits and with those 15 base runners he gave up 5 runs with 4 earned in 4 innings pitched with 3 Ks but Cecil was also completely destroyed in his first triple A outing too so lets see how Drabek does on regular rest.
So pitching is doing well for the Jays and Jo Jo is heading back to the A - T - L
Tom Mehegan
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