Preview Jays v Twins series

Tuesday May 13th 2008. Toronto v Minnesota.

Pitchers tonight:
Toronto Jesse Litsch 4-1, 4.24 ERA. Litsch is 2-0 with a 2.53 ERA over his last three games. His two career starts against Minnesota were both in 2007, and he went 1-0 with a 3.18 ERA.

Minnesota: Kevin Slowey (0-2, 6.48) for his third start of the season. The right-hander, who had been on the disabled list with a right biceps strain, three runs in five innings of Thursday's 6-2 road loss to Chicago White Sox in his first start since April 3.
Slowey's only previous start against Toronto was in 2007 at home. He gave up five runs in five innings and no decision in Minnesota's 8-5 loss.

Twins are leading the AL Central Division and have just won three out of four from Boston and scoring 25 runs in the process They have scored seven runs in each of their last five wins. They will be no easy match for Jays this series.

Jays however are on a win streak of one !!! but it was an excellent win and deserved. All night long they had had good hitting but superb defence by the Indians had stifled them. However they didn’t roll over and die but kept up the pressure and it paid off for them as the game went into extra innings and finally in the 10th Stewarts’s sac fly with bases loaded followed by Hill’s single to score two was more than enough to win this one.

Jays pitching once again had been excellent and Marcum definitely deserved the win although BJ Ryan took it.
Both Hill and Stewart came out of slumps and Wilkerson deserves some credit for his tagging on Stewart’s fly to go to 2B on the throw. This enabled him to be in scoring position for Hill’s single. Cleveland defence however took at least four runs away by my count. The unassisted triple play by Cabrera was enough to tear the heart of this offence that was really struggling. This was followed in the ninth by two great catches at 1B and in RF to rob Rios and Mench of rbis.

Let’s hope that this can carry through tonight. At least it is better than going in to the game having lost four in Cleveland. If Jays pitching can continue the way they have been pitching in the last two weeks this should be an interesting series.

Alex Rios still in slump 1-for-9 in the two games of Monday's doubleheader. He also stranded four runners on base.

The good: B. J. Ryan has not allowed a run this season. His scoreless streak is now 10 innings in ten appearances.

What they said: Minnesota Craig Monroe on recent hitting: "Everybody's starting to swing the bats, and it'll be fun around here when we start to see everyone get going" (Jays echo those sentiments)

Toronto Aaron Hill on the win: "It's nice to get one with nothing else going our way,"

Kevin Slowey on his last start first game back after disabled list: "(It was) obviously disappointing, but my arm felt 100 percent - which was important - and I know that I can get guys out if I make good pitches"

Jays hitting coach Gary Denbo on Jays lack of hitting:. "It's going to even out, it always does. I think over the course of a season, our offense is going to get better." (would prefer he had said “I know” as opposed to think..)