Not June
While having a 6'11" wall of tattooed man arguing about the strike zone can be effective, looking exasperated at a strike call, then regrouping and absolutely destroying the next pitch for a home run sends a different kind of message.
I had a certain feeling about this game going into it. While the Jays lost the previous two games, they were certainly right in both of them. They didn't look lost like they did during that Boston series from hell. And Cliff Lee has been beaten by the Jays before. I remember an incident in 2008, where Lee was supposed to face Halladay in a Cy Young/Who is the Man? head to head show down and the Indians moved his start. Lee was working on a record of scoreless innings pitched and he was 5-0 with an ERA of 0.21 for the month of June.
He was clearly riding high when he saw fit to chirp at Bautista who was protesting a strike out on a curve ball that ended up on the very bottom of the zone.
Well, Cliff, it's not June anymore. Rajai Davis had a sick afternoon that included a triple and three stolen bases. That helped chip in to the 4-0 lead the Phillies' tagged on JoJo Reyes in his rough 2nd inning.
And then the 8th inning happened, and whatever zip Lee had going on his pitches earlier in the game died. Eric Thames smoked one over the centre field fence making it 4-4. Bautista, previously disgusted by a high strike call, tattooed the next pitch for the go ahead shot. Lind singled and then Encarnacion, mirroring Bautista disgust at the strike zone on one pitch, destroyed the next one to the second deck.
It was almost enough to melt away all the frustration, raw feelings, bitterness and annoyance from this weekend of baseball. Was this not the best weekend of baseball Toronto has seen in a while?
Congratulations to Jose Bautista on being named to the All Star team, getting a record number of 7,454,753 votes. My mind is sufficiently blown.