Jays Nest

Wells + Halladay = Win

By KP Wee | June 8th, 2008

This was supposed to be the Toronto Blue Jays’ winning formula all season:

Get big hits from center fielder Vernon Wells, and clutch pitching from ace Roy Halladay.

On Sunday, that proved to be the winning combination as the Blue Jays salvaged the finale of their three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Centre, winning 5-4.

Toronto, at 33-32, is 6.5 games behind in the AL East race, tied with the surging New York Yankees for third.

Wells, who’d come off the DL on Saturday and entered the lineup in the second inning the same day, went 3-for-4 with a homer and two runs scored.

Incredibly, Wells is now 5-for-7 since re-joining the Blue Jays.

Meanwhile, Halladay is now 5-0 in his last five starts (he’d made a relief appearance in Philadelphia as well in that stretch and didn’t pick up a decision), and won his team-high eighth game of the season.

Halladay battled on Sunday, giving up four runs in 7.2 innings, but benefitted from Toronto’s three-run sixth-inning comeback.

For a change, it was Toronto coming back instead of seeing the other team do so, something that had happened several times in the past week.

And it was Wells who started the comeback, slugging his 6th homer of the year to cut Baltimore’s lead to 4-3.

Obviously, it would be impossible for Wells to continue his hitting binge. After all, it was a miracle to see Wells return this early, as he was expected originally to miss six to eight weeks after fracturing his wrist in Cleveland in early May.

Wells, however, has been out of the lineup for a mere 26 games.

However, if the pitching, led by Halladay, Jesse Litsch (7-2, 3.45) and Shaun Marcum (5-3, 2.52), can continue to throw well, the Blue Jays will win their fair share of games.

Meanwhile, infielder Marco Scutaro continues to come up with big hits and RBIs when you’d least expect it.

Scutaro’s clutch two-out hit in the second plated Toronto’s first run of the game, and his sixth-inning, go-ahead sacrifice fly gave the Jays the lead they would not relinquish.

B.J. Ryan pitched a 1-2-3 inning for a change, and picked up save No. 13. Ryan had blown his past two save opportunities, allowing a combined five runs in 1.1 innings, going 0-2 in the process.

On Sunday, the big stories were Wells and Halladay.

The Jays will have to hope for more of these types of performances as they try to chase down the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Marco Scutaro, Shaun Marcum, Jesse Litsch, BJ Ryan, Roy Halladay, Vernon Wells. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.