Aloha From Toronto

Did anybody here expect me to NOT make an Elvis reference in the title of this post? You have seen me stretch to find many a ways to use a song title as a post title, so it should come as no surprise that this morning's recap would feature a title playing on Alex Presley/ Elvis Presley. From here on out, Alex Presley will obviously be referred to as  "The King". Last night's performance certainly warrants that as in his 2nd major league at-bat he recorded his first major league hit: a 2-run home run. That hit's already gone platinum ( sorry I couldn't help myself). Oh yeah, the Bucs also managed to end their 13 game road interleague losing streak amidst The King's Rock Star like performance.

The Bucs came into this contest at sort of a crossroads. Despite being the worst team in the history of Interleague play, they managed to take 4 out of 6 from AL East teams at PNC Park last week, including 2/3 from AL best Boston. However, the one loss against Boston was one of the most embarrassing of the season, a very winnable game that we more or less handed to the Sox by making 4 errors and leaving a plethora of runners on base. On top of that, the Bucs were going to a place  that makes Miller Park look like a picnic: an AL Road Series. The Bucs had dropped 13 straight road games against AL teams, including 3 a weekend ago in Cleveland. Facing the Blue Jays, a team with a similar record, the Bucs would have a chance to break the curse and keep right on trucking.

KC was on the hill for the Bucs last night looking for his 10th win of the season. 10 wins for a Bucs starter is a miracle by itself; 10 wins for a Bucs pitcher before the All-Star Break is reminiscent of the Glory Days. KC would get some help in the top of the 3rd when The King broke a scoreless tie with his first ML hit, the aforementioned 2-run HR to put the Bucs out in front 2-0. The Jays got one back in the bottom of the third, but the Bucs brought out the bats in the 4th. Overpaid led off with a single, followed by a Matt Diaz RBI triple and a GI Jones RBI single, making it 4-1. GI Jones swiped second on a strange Suckdeno ill-advised bunt #46 of the season play and moved to 3rd when Ronny singled. Fort McKenry struck out next, bringing up the King. Once again, he came up big, knocking in GI Jones with an RBI single. d'Arnaud then flew out but the Pride of PR got himself another RBI, bringing in Suckdeno with a 2-out RBI single. Bucs 6, Jays 1.

The big lead would be short lived, however, as Eric Thames single up the middle to lead off the bottom of the 4th, bringing up Jose Bautista. True Bucs fans can guess what happened next: a 2-run blast to cut the lead to 6-3.My overzealous Bucs fan friend told me he thinks Bautista is on the juice and looks noticeably bigger than when he played here. I disagree with both of those assertions, wholeheartedly. He looks the same physically to me, just with a wider stance and different swing. Bautista would net another RBI in the 6th to cut the Bucs lead to 6-4, giving the appearance that the Interleague Road curse was creeping like death. After  a walk to put 2 on and 0 out, KC got a popout and a double play to end the threat. Cutch would get us the run back in the 7th with a solo shot, making it 7-4.

Tony Watson came on in the bottom of the 7th to relieve Correia and as good as he has been all year, he struggled for the first time. He was bound to have a bad night and last night was just htat. Watson gave up back to back home runs to the Blue Jays 7&8 hitters to cut the margin to a razor thing 7-6. Future All-Star Chris Resop was summoned to clean up the mess, only to load the bases after surrendering 2 hits and intentionally walking  Bautista. Jose Veras came on with the bases loaded and 1 out in a 1 run ball game, but since it wasn't the 9th inning or a save opportunity, he totally kicked ass. Veras got Adam Lind to line into an inning ending double play. Whew!

Veras also pitched a perfect 8th to setup the Hammer to work the 9th over a 1-run game. The Hammer was looking to hurt 'em and got the first 2 outs on 3 pitches. Escobar managed to reach on an infield single to short, putting the speedy Escobar on representing the tying run and the equally speedy Eric Thames at the plate. Thames had triple earlier and in the on-deck circles behind him was Jose freaking Bautista. The Hammer knew he had to get this out and wasted no time getting after him, hitting 98 twice before fanning Thames for the final out on a 97 MPH bullet. Final Score Bucs 7, Jays 6. Hammer Time is 23 for 23

Player of the Game: The King- 2 for 5 with 3 RBI in his MLB debut. Not bad at all. Diaz was 3 for 4 as DH and Cutch hit his 11th HR of hte night.

Head Scratcher of the Night: I should have a default Ronny Cedeno incomprehensible bunt attempt template. That kid has the lowest baseball IQ I have ever seen.

Face Palm of the Night- Besides the presence of the Rock in the broadcast booth all night, proving that his actual IQ and Suckdeno's baseball IQ are on par with each other, I'd go with the Jose Bautista trade. Look, I never though he'd hit 54 bombs in a season, but I did think he could hit in the mid 20's.  We would take that, right? Plus, we got nothing for him and gave his job to Andy LaRoche who did zip to earn it.

Also of note, KC got his 10th W of the season! Only Roy Halladay and Jair Jurrjens have as many in the NL, so props to KC, moving to 8-2 on the road this year. The Bucs are back to 2 games above .500 and now would be a GREAT time to get to 3. Note: unlimited spelling errors in this post.