Paid All That Money: Jays Pound Orioles, Edwin goes Oppo and Pedro on the Radio



I realized last night why Buck Showalter might be a little raw about the Blue Jays. The Jays have absolutely pounded Orioles`pitching (minus Ubaldo.) It's May:


So, thank you Orioles.

Also,

This guy started a crowd funding campaign to get the employees compensated for the nights they didn't work. While I thought it was a noble gesture, I really thought that either the Orioles should cover it or MLB.  I mean, these teams have a lot of money and the beer vendor, for instance, is an important part of the experience of watching a baseball game at Camden Yards.

So, that's three things on the list of good things about the Orioles: a manager that has nuanced views of race in America and owns many basset hounds, a pitching staff that surrenders a metric shit tonne of runs to the Blue Jays and management that supports its park staff (eventually.)

In case you were sitting around wondering if Edwin Encarnación 1. was awesome 2. could hit opposite field homers, you should wonder no more.

According to John Lott, Encarnación, Donaldson and Manny Machado (clearly no longer upset at Donaldson tagging him so hard) were hanging around the batting cage pre-game and they were ribbing on Edwin for being so pull happy with his homers.

“I’m not that kind of guy,” Encarnacion said after the game. “I know me.”

“Tonight I got two homers oppo and they started laughing,” Encarnacion said, referring to the ribbing Donaldson and his teammates gave him in the dugout after the second one. 

Why is this amazing? Because pitchers have been trying to pitch him away to get him out. This proves that Encarnación has the ability to punish pitchers out there. 

“If they keep throwing away, you’ve got to let them know that you can hit that way,” Encarnación said.

And he can. This month he is 13-for-39 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 10 games. Beast. 

Mark Buehrle pitched like he had plans after the game. The pace of a Buehrle game is so refreshing. He just doesn't dicker at all. 

He threw only 78 pitches, 53 strikes before he was pulled by Gibbons. There are some questions about why Gibby yanked him, but I'm just going to go with a combo of Buehrle maintenance, a rested bullpen that might need a little work and a fairly close game that felt quite tense until it really wasn't thanks to the two EE homers and a Donaldson one added to the pile.

Why pull Buehrle?

“Just my decision. Nothing more than that. That’s why they pay me all that money, to make those decisions, right or wrong.”

Near the end of Buehrle's outing, Gibbons had him intentionally walk Adam Jones. Delmon Young then was kind enough to bounce into an inning ending DP. Why walk Jones?

Clearly, Gibby reads my Twitter feed:
Maybe they should pay me all that money.

Finally, Pedro Martinez was interviewed by NPR. He's great.   Just the best.  "I will remember it."